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carameliz's avatar
carameliz
New Contributor

Cox blocking my web site from email links

I submitted my portfolio to a company today and checked the receipt email on gmail. If I click on the link to my website, www.bumpsmack.com, I get the Cox "Scam Blocked" warning.

I'm using GMail, not Cox mail. I can get to the site by typing directly (after clearing cache) but I can't link to it from inside my email. Can someone fix this please?

Error:

Dear Valued Cox Customer,

You have been taken to this page because you followed a link in a fraudulent email. This email was not from Cox Communications.

Occasionally, Cox customers receive emails masquerading as Cox Communications and requesting account information. Usually they urgently ask for you to update your billing information, and request credit card and other personal or account information.

Please understand that Cox will never request our customers' personal financial or account information via email.

Email of this type is called "phishing." These emails are illegal attempts to collect confidential information from internet users. When detected, Cox takes immediate action to insure that access to these sites is first blocked from the Cox network, and then works with hosting ISP's to terminate the accounts.

For more information in combating online fraud or to file a complaint, visit http://onguardonline.gov .

Regards,
Cox Communications
Your Friend in the Digital Age

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  • Bebopx0's avatar
    Bebopx0
    New Contributor

    Cox will probably tell you to change hosting and mark as solved. I don't think theres any way for us website developers to get around this "phising Block". Its doing much more harm than good in my honest opinion. 

  • carameliz's avatar
    carameliz
    New Contributor

    Thank you Tiffany,

    The host is 000webhost. Here is there statement on abuse:

    "We have dedicated staff available here 24/7 and we are ready to remove any abusive website in a minutes. If you think that any website hosted here violated our TOS, please report it here. Our average response time is 2 hours."

    https://www.000webhost.com/report-abuse

    The host 000webhost.com isn't blocked. They have 32 IPs per server with over 15,000,000 users. I there anyway that I could get my domain unblocked. 

    Also, my site doesn't send any emails. I get this error now just trying to browse to the site directly.

    Thanks

  • carameliz's avatar
    carameliz
    New Contributor

    @Bebopx0

    I do agree that it does more harm than good. I understand the good intentions from Cox but I think there is a better way to approach the issue than a blanket block that affects sites that are not harmful. 

  • ChrisL's avatar
    ChrisL
    Former Moderator
    @carameliz

    It's not that you're sending emails but rather we're blocking access to the url's that are being used in the phishing emails to prevent Cox customers that may receive them from clicking on them inadvertently. As for the IP's the one they need to investigate is the one that resolves when looking up the site that isn't working. As is typical with shared hosting there are probably numerous other sites hosted on the same IP address several of which have been found to be hosting phishing sites.