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savannahschroll
Former Member
Message 1 of 9

Site incorrectly flagged as suspicious

Hello,

I'm a McAfee customer, and my website, www.savannahschrollguz.com, has been flagged as "suspicious". My site is hosted by Network Solutions (I add this detail to indicate that I do not have the hosting server here in my home office). To my knowledge, my site is genuinely clean and poses no danger to visitors. This rating is especially distressing because I'm an English instructor and freelance writer and illustrator. I rely on my site to post student lecture notes and present examples of my previous publications and illustration work. Ultimately, my website is my principal public face in business, and it is also a valuable teaching tool I use every class period. From what I have been able to determine so far via Site Advisor, McAfee considers my website a spam threat, although I am not sure exactly what this means. I certainly don't send out spam to anyone.

I've already attempted to resolve the issue, to little avail. I tried to comment via Site Advisor, I've emailed Support at McAfee, and last night, my husband and I spent an hour and a half attempting to get the situation rectified through customer service. But it appears nothing has changed. The site is still marked suspicious. To have my website marked in this way harms my credibility as both an instructor and a business person. Certainly, it has the power to inhibit my income generation because I know of very few editors who would visit a new freelancer's site that has been flagged as suspicious. Many of my current clients and editors have previously found me through my website.  Is there anyone who can suggest other avenues to facilitate problem resolution? 

Thank you so much in advance!

Savannah

8 Replies
spc3rd
Former Member
Message 2 of 9

Re: Site incorrectly flagged as suspicious

Hi savannah and welcome to the McAfee Community Forums!

     Until some of our more knowledgeable forum members/Moderators can arrive to review your post, let me ask you one thing:  How long ago did you get this website?

From my own limited checking, McAfee's Trusted Source is indeed flagging your site with the yellow (suspicious) icon, though I'm not really sure as to the specific reason(s).  In checking your URL in the hosts-file.net website, there is an annotation in red regarding the IP not resolving.  (This is considered an unfavorable practice).

You can see the text I'm referring to at this link:  http://hosts-file.net/default.asp?s=savannahschrollguz.com

(Just scroll down the page about halfway and the text is shown on the right side).

Hopefully, the other aforementioned forum members/Moderators will arrive before too long and be able to offer their expertise on your issue!

Regards,

Message was edited by: spc3rd on 2/24/12 2:50:21 PM EST

Message was edited by: spc3rd on 2/24/12 2:55:37 PM EST
savannahschroll
Former Member
Message 3 of 9

Re: Site incorrectly flagged as suspicious

Hello, Pete~

Thank you very much for the welcome and for taking a look! It's really, really appreciated.

I got the site back in 2007, and I've never had any difficulty with it before--that is, until I upgraded McAfee a few weeks ago. Then I began getting the flag (it even flagged the site in the signature of my outgoing Yahoo mail, which was terrible because I was communicating with editors and had this big warning at the bottom of my mail).

Last night, we discovered that my husband's company blocks my site entirely, which means that it is likely blocked on other systems as well. This caused me to become a bit panicked, since I haven't been able to get anyone to tell me why it's considered risky, and I really need the site for professional and student contacts.

My husband, who is a Systems Engineer by trade, believes that it could be a Network Solutions (my web host) issue, which appears to be borne out by what you've found...if I interpret that warning message correctly. I've also forwarded this thread to him, so he can also see if I'm translating the meaning in the right way.

Thank you so much for your input. Again, it is genuinely appreciated!

Savannah

spc3rd
Former Member
Message 4 of 9

Re: Site incorrectly flagged as suspicious

Greetings again savannah!

That sounds like a good start!  Do keep us posted on how things progress.  If you experience further problems and/or need additional help...please feel free to return and post again!  Having your husband who's a System Engineer by trade is definitely a "plus" which most people probably don't have. 

If the problem turns out to be an issue with Network Solutions, they may be able to easily correct it.  (It's also possible you may need to submit a request to McAfee's SiteAdvisor staff disputing the yellow rating and request a re-evaluation).  If that should become necessary, you can post back and we can provide you with the link to the necessary form to accomplish that.  I'm hopeful though, that you'll be successful at resolving the problem aside from needing to request the re-evaluation!

Best regards & good luck!

savannahschroll
Former Member
Message 5 of 9

Re: Site incorrectly flagged as suspicious

Hello, Pete!

Thank you so much. Yes, please--if you would be able to let me know the form or link, which I would need to use to request a site re-evaluation, I would be very grateful!

Thank you again! Hope you're having a good weekend!

Savannah

Message was edited by: savannahschrollguz on 2/25/12 6:37:15 PM CST
spc3rd
Former Member
Message 6 of 9

Re: Site incorrectly flagged as suspicious

Hi savannah!

     To dispute your site's rating, please submit your rating dispute and review request at the following link:

http://www.siteadvisor.com/userfeedback.html

Hope this will help.  Feel free to post back if you encounter any problems or need additional assistance!

Good luck!

Message was edited by: spc3rd on 2/25/12 9:11:23 PM EST

Message was edited by: spc3rd on 2/25/12 9:12:53 PM EST
savannahschroll
Former Member
Message 7 of 9

Re: Site incorrectly flagged as suspicious

Thank you, Pete, very much!!

Savannah

spc3rd
Former Member
Message 8 of 9

Re: Site incorrectly flagged as suspicious

You're most welcome!

savannahschroll
Former Member
Message 9 of 9

Re: Site incorrectly flagged as suspicious

Just a quick update:  My site is rated green now. HOORAY!! Thank you, Pete, very much for your help! And vielen, vielen Dank (many, many thanks) to Andreas Grahl of McAfee in Muenchen!

Thank you again!!

Savannah

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