EUIPO issues warning about fraudulent websites

The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) is warning users to remain vigilant against fraudulent websites attempting to replicate its official portal.

“Unauthorised third parties have created counterfeit websites that replicate the visual appearance, logos and layout of the official EUIPO web pages,” reads a statement from the organization. “These copycat sites are designed to deceive visitors into believing they are using authentic EUIPO services, with the aim of inducing them to perform unauthorised actions or download malicious software.”

EUIPO also confirmed in the statement that its official systems and databases have not been compromised.

EUIPO specifies that legitimate security checks never ask users to execute system commands. Official verification procedures, such as Captchas, will never ask you to open the operating system's command line, PowerShell, the Terminal or the “Run” window. They will also not ask you to copy and paste code onto your device.

EUIPO adds that users should always verify the domain. Fraudulent sites are hosted on external domains, outside of the EUIPO infrastructure.

Other useful recommendations include checking the address bar, never carrying out unexpected requests and reporting suspicious sites.