Security Review

Is ethz.ch legit or a scam?

Our verdict:Safe· 97/100

ETH Zürich's official homepage — a legitimate Swiss public university website with clean security signals and strong institutional credentials.

ethz.chScanned 2d ago
0
Trust score
SAFE
Heuristics 100·MT 95
View density

Analysis Summary

Threat Intelligence
0/92
All engines report clean
Domain Age
Registration date unknown
MT Intelligence
Safe
Low likelihood · 99% confidence
SAFE

No threats detected

All checks passed. This site appears legitimate — but always stay alert for phishing even on trusted domains.

Website Preview

Screenshot of ethz.ch
LIVE RENDER
ethz.ch

Automated page render — captured in a safe sandbox. What an ordinary visitor would see when loading the site.

MT Intelligence

Advanced threat intelligence
MT Security Analyst
Low scam likelihoodengineMT · Guardiantrust95/100
MT AgentLive web researchVisual inspection
0%
Confidence
ETH Zürich (ethz.ch) is the primary website of a major Swiss public research institution established in 1854 and operated under the Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research. Our antivirus network shows zero detections across 92 engines, the hosting IP has zero abuse reports, and SSL is valid with DigiCert certification. Our web research found no scam reports, complaints, or fraud allegations against the domain itself — instead, searches for phishing-related content return the university's own cybersecurity awareness materials and legitimate anti-phishing guidance. The site is actively used for admissions, research, staffnet access, and institutional communications. Reddit discussions and independent sources confirm ethz.ch as the authentic domain; any phishing attempts reference fake login pages that spoof the university but originate from different domains.
Full dossier
Analysis complete

Page Content

The homepage displays the official ETH Zürich branding, navigation to 16 academic departments (Architecture, Computer Science, Physics, Mathematics, etc.), links to student portals, alumni services, and research resources. The page is a modern JavaScript application with proper institutional structure and multilingual support (German, English, French, Italian).

Infrastructure

Hosting IP 129.132.19.216 has zero abuse reports and a clean reputation score. SSL certificate is valid, issued by DigiCert, with 71 days remaining. The domain redirects cleanly with no homoglyph or internationalized-domain tricks. External resources loaded are legitimate (Google Tag Manager for analytics, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok for social links).

Domain History

ETH Zürich is a government-affiliated public university founded in 1854. The domain ethz.ch is the official institutional website and has been in continuous use for decades. Business registration confirms active status as a Swiss public institution under federal oversight.

Web Reputation

Zero scam reports, zero complaints, and zero negative reviews found across consumer-review sites and general web sources. Wikipedia and official Swiss government sources confirm ethz.ch as the legitimate primary website. The institution maintains dedicated IT security resources, including a phishing-report address (phishing@ethz.ch) and extensive cybersecurity awareness materials.

Positive Signals
5
  • Government-affiliated Swiss public university, founded 1854, under federal oversight.
  • Zero detections across 92 antivirus engines; clean browser blocklists and sandbox results.
  • Hosting IP has zero abuse reports and clean reputation.
  • Valid SSL certificate from DigiCert; no redirect tricks or domain spoofing.
  • Extensive institutional content: 16 academic departments, student portals, research resources, and IT security guidance.
AI Recommendation
This is a safe, legitimate website. You can confidently use ETH Zürich's official services, admissions portal, and student resources through ethz.ch.
Next-gen fraud intelligence
Evidence-backedCross-checked

Web Research Findings

Our live research agent queries scam-report databases, consumer-review sites, news coverage, and general web search for ethz.ch, then cross-checks business-registration records and look-alike domain patterns. Everything below is pulled from what it actually found.

Business registration
Active · Switzerland
Site traces back to an actively registered business.
Clone check
Not a clone
No well-known site's layout or branding detected here.
Typosquat check
No look-alike match
The domain doesn't resemble any well-known brand's spelling.
Web mentions
No scam reports found
No complaints, no negative coverage turned up in our sweep.
Key findings
7 headline facts from open-web research
  • Official website of ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich), a public university established in 1854.
  • Domain is actively used by the institution for its homepage, IT security awareness pages, staffnet, research, admissions, and news.
  • ETH Zurich maintains extensive IT security resources, including dedicated phishing@ethz.ch reporting address and guidance on recognizing phishing, spoofing, and scams.
  • Reddit r/ethz discussions reference phishing emails that spoof or mimic ETH Zurich (e.g., fake login pages), but distinguish them from the legitimate ethz.ch domain.
  • No scam reports, fraud complaints, or negative reviews found on review sites or general web searches for ethz.ch itself.
  • Wikipedia and official sources confirm ethz.ch as the primary website; institution is government-affiliated with strong academic reputation.
  • Searches for "ethz.ch scam" or "fraud" predominantly return the university's own anti-phishing and cybersecurity awareness materials.
Business registration
Status: active · Switzerland

Public university (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich) founded 1854, under Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research. ETH Zurich Foundation is a separate non-profit.

Research summary
Narrative write-up from our AI analyst, grounded on the facts above

We searched scam-report databases, consumer-review sites, and general web sources for ethz.ch and found zero scam reports, complaints, or fraud allegations. Business registration data confirms ETH Zürich as an active Swiss public institution (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich) founded in 1854 and operated under the Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research. Wikipedia and official sources verify ethz.ch as the legitimate primary website. Searches for phishing-related content return the university's own cybersecurity awareness materials and anti-phishing guidance, not complaints about the domain itself.

Antivirus Engines

Clean pass · verified
Clean across 92 engines

We cross-check every URL against our antivirus network of 92 malware and blacklist engines. None of them flagged this URL in the last scan.

0Malicious0Suspicious60Harmless92Engines
Clean
Kaspersky
Clean
Bitdefender
Clean
Microsoft
Not in pass
ESET-NOD32
Not in pass
Avira
Not in pass
Sophos
Clean
Fortinet
Clean
Google Safebrowsing
Clean
Emsisoft
Clean

No engine detections. The URL passed every antivirus and blacklist engine we queried in this scan. Stay vigilant — AV coverage is only one signal among many.

Security Scans

Blacklist Check
Not flagged on major threat lists

Checked against the major public blocklists used by browsers and security tools — no hits.

Contact Verification

We fetched the page and looked for real-world contact details. Legitimate businesses almost always publish an email on their own domain, a phone number, and a postal address. Scam shops usually don't.

What We Found
No clear contact details on the page
Emails on site's domainNone
Phone numbers1437726188
Postal addressNot listed
Linked social profiles5
Signal Summary
Contact details look reasonable
  • No contact email found anywhere on the page.
  • No postal address visible on the page.
  • Phone number listed (1437726188).
  • Links to 5 social profiles.

Domain & Encryption

Encryption Certificate
StatusValid
ProtocolTLSv1.3
IssuerDigiCert Inc · DigiCert Global G2 TLS RSA SHA256 2020 CA1
ExpiresAug 23, 2026 (71d)
Self-signedNo
Hosting & Technology
HostingETH/UNIZH Camp Net
Server locationCH
PopularityTop 100k worldwide

Redirect Chain

Hops
1
Cross-domain
No
Lookalike
No
Punycode
No
  • 1301http://ethz.ch/
  • 2200https://ethz.ch/de.html

Server Reputation

Abuse Intelligence
Confidence score0%
Reports on file0
ISPETH/UNIZH Camp Net
Usage typeData Center/Web Hosting/Transit

Still, stay alert

No major threat indicators — but a clean scan does not guarantee every page is safe, and phishing emails routinely spoof real domains.

  • Double-check the exact URL in your address bar

    Confirm you are actually on ethz.ch and not a lookalike like e-thz.ch.com or an IDN homoglyph.

  • Use a password manager

    Password managers only auto-fill on the exact domain they were saved for — they refuse to fill lookalike domains, which is the single best phishing defence.

  • Discuss this site on the forum

    If you have first-hand experience with this site — good or bad — share it with the MalwareTips community.

    Open

Reputation Sources

How this domain rates across independent threat-intelligence and blocklist providers.

Google Safe Browsing
Not listedCheck ↗
VirusTotal
Not listedCheck ↗
AbuseIPDB
Not listedCheck ↗

Referenced Domains

Outbound domains this page links to or loads resources from. Each links to its own security scan.

Safety FAQ

Common questions about this site, answered directly from the scan data above — so the answers always reflect the latest verdict on this page.

  • Our automated security review found no threat indicators on ethz.ch. The site appears legitimate based on the signals we checked, but always stay alert for phishing emails that spoof real domains.
  • ethz.ch passed our automated security checks with a trust score of 97/100. No antivirus engines or major blacklists flagged the site at the time of the last scan.
  • Yes. ethz.ch presents a valid TLSv1.3 certificate issued by DigiCert Inc · DigiCert Global G2 TLS RSA SHA256 2020 CA1, expiring in 71 days. Note that SSL only encrypts the connection — it does not guarantee that the site itself is trustworthy.
  • No. All 92 antivirus engines in our malware network report ethz.ch as clean.
  • No. ethz.ch is not currently listed on the major browser blocklist feeds that modern browsers use.
  • ethz.ch resolves to an IP operated by ETH/UNIZH Camp Net in CH (usage type: Data Center/Web Hosting/Transit). Hosting location alone doesn't make a site good or bad, but unusual geography for a brand's claimed country is one of many signals we weigh.
  • Yes. ethz.ch sits in the global top-100k on Cloudflare Radar, which means it has substantial real-world traffic. That does not automatically make it safe, but established brands almost always rank here and throwaway scam domains almost never do.
  • This is a permanent record of the scan run on June 12, 2026. The verdict and evidence above reflect that scan and do not change on their own. If circumstances around ethz.ch have changed, MalwareTips staff can run a fresh scan, which re-runs every check from scratch and publishes an updated report.

Final Verdict

0
Trust / 100
Final Verdict·ethz.ch
SAFE

ETH Zürich is the official website of Switzerland's Federal Institute of Technology, a prestigious public research university founded in 1854. All technical signals are clean, the domain is government-affiliated, and no scam reports or complaints exist.

This is a safe, legitimate website. You can confidently use ETH Zürich's official services, admissions portal, and student resources through ethz.ch.

AV engines
92
MT passes
2
Net signals
0
Scan another URL
Security review completemalwaretips.com/url-scan
Recently scanned

Other Safe reports

Browse all reports
Community review

User reviews & comments(0)

Share your experience — "Lost $200 on a fake checkout" is more useful than "Scam". Your review helps others avoid traps.

Loading…
Loading comments…
This report is generated automatically by combining threat intelligence, domain signals, and an AI security analyst. It is informational, not legal advice. Always use your own judgement before sharing personal information or money online.