Germany warns of phishing scams targeting students and pensioners

The University of Potsdam’s IT service (IMT) warned that a phishing email posing as a university mailing list (“Infos für Studierende”) is circulating. The message contains a link that downloads a Trojan and asks recipients to provide login details. IMT urges anyone who receives the mail to verify its authenticity, contact imt@upb.de or call +49 5251 60‑5544.

The Deutsche Rentenversicherung (German Pension Insurance) issued a separate alert about SMS fraud aimed at retirees. The messages claim a refund is due and contain a link labeled “Rentenantrag”. Fraudsters seek personal or banking information. The agency advises seniors to ignore the messages, delete them, block the sender’s number, and call the free helpline 0800 1000 4800 for confirmation.