Service announcement - 26 February 2026 Massive wave of email fraud
Warning: Our users are currently receiving an increasing number of emails as part of a large-scale scam. The emails appear to come from a superior.
The subject line of the email is usually just something like “Available?”, “Are you in the office?” or “Are you on campus or working from home?”. Otherwise, they initially contain no further content or just a short question and the name of the supervisor(s).
How does the scam work?
If you respond to this, you will be drawn into a conversation via email, and the attackers will try to trick the recipient into sending them money in the form of Apple Gift Cards, for example, which is needed for a potential contact. The conversation feigns urgency and claims that the supervisor is currently in a meeting, for example, and therefore unable to act on their own. The money is then supposed to be refunded later.
Recommended actions
If you receive such a message, please send it once as described in our instructions and delete the email immediately afterwards.
- If you are already in contact with the fraudsters, break off communication immediately.
- If you have actually sent Apple Gift Cards to the fraudsters, please report the incident to your local police station.
- If you have sent university funds to the fraudsters, please report this using the linked form (Report IT security incident).
- Recognizing phishing: For more information, please refer to the linked instructions.
- Reporting a security incident: If you discover a security incident, please refer to the information linked below and use the linked form to report it.