In line with international trade regulations, the Azerbaijan Food Safety Agency (AFSA) received a request from Israel's Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to verify the authenticity of phytosanitary certificates, Azernews reports. Upon examination, the certificates submitted were found to be falsified.

Investigations revealed that the QR codes on these fraudulent documents redirected users to domains created abroad, including e-afsa, me-qr, and qr-code-generator. These domains were confirmed to be fake and unrelated to the agency.

AFSA's Information Technology and Innovative Solutions Department emphasized that the agency's official domain is gov. Certificates issued by AFSA, when scanned via QR code, always redirect exclusively to this official domain.

The discrepancy has been reported to the relevant Israeli authorities, with additional documentation requested to continue the investigation. All materials related to the forgery have been submitted to law enforcement for legal assessment.

In its statement, AFSA declared that such unlawful acts are unacceptable and warned that those engaged in these activities will face the strictest measures under the law. The agency urged exporters, businesses, and farm owners to carefully check that QR codes on official certificates lead to the legitimate domain gov.

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