Verdict
udsm.ac.tz appears legitimate.
Our checks found nothing pointing to fraud. Ordinary care still applies when you pay or sign in.
| What this site appears to be | Institutional homepage for the University of Dar es Salaam: site navigation, admissions calls to action, news and announcements, research and scholarship information, and links to programmes and services. |
|---|
Evidence status and limitations
Evidence completeness: UNKNOWN
- The real-world operator identity was not independently verified.
- Module-level completeness metadata is unavailable for this legacy report.
At a glance
The checks that decide most of this verdict.
| Malware engines | None flagged itVirusTotal | Clear |
|---|---|---|
| Google Safe Browsing | Not listedGoogle | Clear |
| Abuse reports on the host | 0 reportsAbuseIPDB; shared hosting inflates this count | Noted |
| Domain age | 17 years oldRegistered history | Clear |
| Web archive | Archived since 19983150 snapshots | Clear |
| Certificate | Encrypted connectionIssued by DigiCert Global G2 TLS RSA SHA256 2020 CA1 | Noted |
The page as captured
No screenshot is retained for this report.
Key findings
- Automated classification: Not Scam.
- Domain age: more than 10 years (registration continuity).
- Public web-archive history exists since 1998.
- No flags from the reputation services TrustSniffer consulted at assessment time.
Full analysis
Overview
The website is the institutional public-information portal of the University of Dar es Salaam, presenting admissions information, undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, academic colleges, research and scholarships, university news, services, governance information, and links for students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Its apparent purpose is to provide official university information rather than direct consumer commerce or financial services.
Scam/Impersonation Risk
No contradictions were observed. The homepage consistently presents an academic-institutional purpose, with admissions, programmes, research, scholarships, governance, and university services rather than malicious prompts, credential harvesting, direct financial solicitation, or cryptocurrency-related activity. The apparent institutional identity is supported by substantial historical continuity and clean external reputation signals; however, the real-world operator has not been independently verified, so the identity assessment remains evidence-consistent rather than proven.
- The homepage identifies the University of Dar es Salaam and presents admissions, academic, research, student-service, and governance navigation; no login form, sensitive form, hidden form, or untrusted form destination was detected.
- The domain was registered in 2009 and is approximately 17.06 years old.
- Historical records contain 3,150 snapshots spanning 1998–2026, covering 29 years with a maximum recorded gap of 1 year.
- External reputation checks recorded 0 malicious detections, 0 suspicious detections, and no phishing or blacklist hit; the site was also associated with a university/college/school usage classification.
Regulatory Verification Notes
The legal and identity content is consistent with an established university website: the homepage links to leadership and management, history, policies and guidelines, academic disciplines, colleges, directorates, and institutional services. The site does not claim a financial or other regulated commercial licence, and no licence number or licensing authority is presented; for this apparent academic-information business model, that is a disclosure and applicability point for ordinary due diligence rather than evidence of deception. The available evidence supports an apparently legitimate institutional site, while independent operator identity verification remains incomplete. A third-party broker-reputation dataset returned no match, which is contextual reassurance only and not a licensing determination.
- The homepage title is “Home | University of Dar es Salaam,” and the page identifies the United Republic of Tanzania and the University of Dar es Salaam.
- The site’s history, leadership and management, policies and guidelines, and academic-college pages provide institution-focused identity and governance content.
- The domain registrar is REG-UCC; the recorded registration date is 2009-07-24 and the recorded expiration date is 2027-07-23.
- The site is served through AS22354, with the hosting organization recorded as “- , TZ”; its transport certificate is OV, issued by DigiCert Global G2 TLS RSA SHA256 2020 CA1, with validity through 2027-01-13.
What to Verify Next
Before credential or payment interactions, an organization should independently confirm that the relevant admissions, student-service, or payment instructions correspond to the university’s official channels and that any requested transaction is covered by appropriate institutional payment protections. Where a specific programme or service carries regulatory or professional requirements, the applicable Tanzanian authority or institutional registry should be consulted directly rather than relying solely on website statements. Contact details and important instructions should also be cross-checked through an independent, established university channel.
- The admissions and programme pages provide the stated context for any application-related interaction.
- The leadership, history, and policies pages provide reference points for comparing institutional identity and governance information.
- The site presents e-services, student services, library, health services, and counselling links, giving independent institutional pathways against which transaction or credential requests can be compared.
Summary Verdict
Available evidence is consistent with an established, apparently legitimate University of Dar es Salaam website and supports a high-trust, low-risk posture. No scam, phishing, impersonation, or conflicting-identity indicators were observed, although the operator’s real-world identity is not independently verified.
Infrastructure Integrity
The site resolves to a single apparent origin address rather than a CDN edge, with no CDN or WAF provider detected. This provides less intermediary protection than a mainstream edge network, but the resolved infrastructure is technically identifiable and is accompanied by valid OV transport encryption; infrastructure posture is therefore a mitigating technical signal, not proof of institutional legitimacy.
Closing Assessment
Normal informational use is proportionate to the available evidence; credential or payment activity should follow the ordinary independent institutional, merchant-identity, and payment-protection checks appropriate to the specific transaction.
Written analysis generated 2026-08-13 by the TrustSniffer Analysis Engine from the evidence in this report.
What the analysis found
No rule findings contributed to this verdict.
Identity verification
| Status | UNVERIFIED |
|---|---|
| Identity score | 55/100 |
| Identity verification confidence | 60% |
- Identity verified on page
Identity verification measures whether the site can be independently connected to a real-world brand or person. It is separate from the classification confidence.
What TrustSniffer observed
First-party facts recorded during the assessment of udsm.ac.tz.
- The request stayed on udsm.ac.tz. It was not redirected to another domain. Clear
- Registration is published under REG-UCC. Clear
- DNS for this domain is served by ac.tz, across 3 name servers. Noted
- The registration is paid up to 2027-07-23. Noted
- The earliest public archive of this site is from 1998-12-06. Clear
- It is hosted on - , TZ, from a server in TZ. Noted
Domain intelligence
| Registrar | REG-UCC |
|---|---|
| Hosting | - , TZ |
| Country | TZ |
| Server IP | 196.44.161.196 |
| Name servers | ns.udsm.ac.tz, ns2.udsm.ac.tz, ns3.udsm.ac.tz |
| SSL issuer | DigiCert Global G2 TLS RSA SHA256 2020 CA1 |
| SSL expiry | 2027-01-13 |
| Domain age | 17.06 years (continuous registration) |
| Domain expiry | 2027-07-23 |
| Archive first seen | 1998-12-06 |
| Archive snapshots | 3150 |
| Reputation | VirusTotal: 0 flagged | AbuseIPDB: 0 reports | Google Safe Browsing: 0 matches |
About this assessment
A trust score summarises the evidence TrustSniffer could collect about udsm.ac.tz at assessment time. It is a starting point for your own judgement, not a guarantee: a high score means the signals were consistent with a legitimately operated site, a low or critical score means several risk patterns were present.
TrustSniffer assesses a website from the evidence it can collect at a point in time: domain registration and age, hosting and certificate, the content the site served, and third-party reputation feeds. A score is a summary of that evidence, not a guarantee and not a legal finding. There is no human rating and no user review in it. A site can change after it is assessed.