Password reset email blocked as unsafe url

[KC999100]

I want to reset my password; after passing your security checks you sent an email to me with a link to do so.

It came to me with this subject line: Your O2 password reset otac

The content was: 

McAfee - POTENTIALLY UNSAFE URLS DETECTED

   The total number of URLs identified : 13 
   Blacklisted URLs : 0
   Exceeded low threshold (30) : 0
   Exceeded high threshold (80) : 1

   Highest URL rating score identified : 127

This has happened twice - what is going on? I do not have MacAfee, or Outlook, this is happening at your end I believe. (NB I posted this thinking it was Tech Support, not aware I was being pointed at a community board, so please raed my use of "you" and "your" as referring to O2)

[Bambino]

@KC999100 Looks like just a scam email. Hopefully you didn't click on any link within it. See this if you have:

If you think you’ve been the victim of fraud – whether that’s because you’ve given details to someone over the phone, or clicked on a link in a suspicious text or email – there are things you can do:
Contact your bank if you think you may have given out financial information. They can help protect your account and stop transactions
Change your account and online account passwords. All of them.
Forward fraudulent texts to us for free on 7726 and we’ll look into them
Contact Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040
Call your Virgin Media or O2 customer services number if you think somebody’s taken out a contract with us using their details
Virgin Media customers can phone 150 from their landline or 0345 454 1111 from any other phone.
O2 customers can call 202 from their O2 phone or 0344 809 0202 from any other phone.

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

@KC999100 

It seems that McAfee can be over sensitive at times and will detect certain strings in messages as being potentially dangerous. Of course, potentially doesn't mean they are, it's just advice to use caution.

As you are requesting these codes yourself from O2 you can safely proceed.

[KC999100]

Thank you MI5 and Bambino, I really appreciate you getting back to me so quickly. Unfortunately I don't think you've nailed the problem as (re MI5 reply) the email from O2 contained no codes, it was just what you see in my OP with some additional blurb about reporting fraud etc, and (re Bambino reply) the emails did come immediately after I requested them from the O2 site (which I accesses via google, not a link) but yeh - maybe a clever scam I suppose. They came from noreply@o2mail.co.uk - or at least appear to 🙂  - which looks genuine, and had only the following links:  http://www.virginmedia.com/netreport and http://www.o2.co.uk/help/safety-and-security which agreed with what I saw when I mouse-hovered over them. Even so, no - I didn't click on them! 

In the end I did get my password reset by calling O2 direct, although they totally ducked the unsafe URL question - just said that they "occasionally have system glitches". Anyway, immediate issue solved but still mystified as to what triggered that MacAfee warning. Thanks again for your replies.

[madasaf1sh]

@KC999100 

Who is your email provider, as it could be them using McAfee

It is McAfee being the garbage it always have been I am sorry to say, one of the worst security products on the planet. 

As if it cant detonate the link it marks the URL and the email as unsafe, it would be better if it did URL rewriting the links and then when you click on them it checks on the fly.. 

McAfee is like Norton a complete waste of money....  

[KC999100]

Thanks for the reply Madasaf1sh and yeh - reckon it's my provider using MacAfee... and I agree that it's not a product I like; I had it for a while and it kept glitching as well as hogged resource and finally unilaterally decided to keep trying to connect via its VPN even though that was not in my subscription or even selectable! Uninstalled it in the end (and many years ago did the same with Norton, can't remember why, probably being a resource hog, but never been tempted to return)

[KC999100]

On balance I think that my email provider uses MacAfee (as suggested by madasaf1sh) and it objected to the link O2 tried to send.

Thank you Bambino, MI5 and Madasaf1sh for your input, you've been great!