Why are some customers unable to access my online store?

[bitesandtickles]

Hey there, 

I've had multiple customers complain that they can't reach my store and I'm losing hundreds of $ because of this. 

It started with customers receiving error messages like "this sites security certificate can't be trusted" And now many providers and anti virus programs block access completely and flag my site as phishing site. 

I have no clue why this happens, maybe an app is the issue? I would be so grateful if anyone could check this. 

I attached an example image of things my customers see. 

 

[casey-customs]

You'll notice in the URL it just says http:// instead of https:// which indicates a problem with your SSL. I had no problem visiting your shop so I'd say the SSL is fine right now, but maybe had a problem recently and now your customers are accessing the cached version that their browser remembers. They'll need to clear their cache or try accessing your store with an alternate browser and they should have no problem then!

[bitesandtickles]

Hey there,

I have no more issues with ssl but some customers still can't visit my store. For some their antivirus blocks it and for some it says "security certificate not trusted". And Yes, I am aware that the current solution seems to ask them to update their device but if I run ads and someone wants to access the site and sees it's not loading - they're gone for good.

Especially regarding the blocked site by antivirus: Could someone check my shop if there is any malicious code? I would pay for this service as necessary as this is really important to me. I also have a ton of customers not being able to place orders even tho their credit card has enough funds. Some can, other can't.

I'm on the verge of switching to another shop system because I am loosing 200-300$ a day due to the site not being accessable or my customers not able to check out. I don't know how to solve this and spend the last months relentlessly researching this issue but found no answer...

[bitesandtickles]

Quick update: I still have some customers that either cant load the page due to a message like "security certificate not loaded" or now even some customers recieving the notice "this page might be impersonating bitesandtickles-shop.com to steal your data".

I have no idea why this happens and it happens for some customers but not all of them. This is completely random and I hope someone either could check this for me or reissue my ssl and see if that helps.

thank you!

[casey-customs]

Looks fine to me! I even tried a VPN and visited your site from a few different places in the world. Pardon me if your analytics happens to show a random visit from Mexico and the UK 😛 but I'm pleased to say that no warning popped up for me.

I couldn't speak to the ads you're running or if they're configured in some odd way but there's no problem visiting your store. If on the other hand someone has visited your store before when you had the incorrect DNS information then they probably have that pathway cached in their browser. Clearing cache or using a browser that doesn't have that cache is really the only solution.

If someone gives me incorrect directions to their house and they've given me new directions, but I keep using the old directions over and over, there really is no solution except to stop using those incorrect directions. They can't move their house over so that following the incorrect directions becomes correct. Same for the website. If they remember the SSL being broken and insist that probably still is without checking then the only solution is to forget that it was broken.

[KaylaYoung]

Hey! Did you ever get this fixed? I am having the same issue with Telstra blocking my website, and a couple of anti virus systems. Its happening constantly, and I have lost a huge amount of business - not only just loss of sales, but any potential customers will never trust my website after being told it has phishing and malicious content. I have contacted everyone (shopify, telstra, antivirus, domain host etc) so many times, but no one seems to be able to help. 

Thanks!

[casey-customs]

It's probably the same thing, something has gone wrong with your domain setup that prevented SSL from enabling correctly. You'll have to say what your domain is before anyone can take a look.

[bitesandtickles]

The responses here make no sense, because this is not an ssl issue. My domain is hosted on shopify and I bought it there, so there should be no problem at all regarding ssl.
I still to this day have these issues. The most common being the text "this sites security certificate can't be trusted" No matter which device is used, it appears for some customers that try to visit. I've probably lost a few thousands by this. Whenever someone writes me they can't reach, I redirect them to etsy, where I listed my products now as well because of this issue.

No one is helping, no matter how hard you try or who you ask. This whole thing is really frustrating. I love shopify, but this regularly drives me nuts.

[casey-customs]

Sorry but the briefest google search for "this sites security certificate can't be trusted" comes up exclusively with results that recommend checking your SSL certificate.

If you're sure it's fine then I'm sure you'll have no problem sharing your domain name so you can prove it 😉

[bitesandtickles]

Yes, exactly! And this is why it doesn't make sense at all. I have the ability to google, I am not stupid.

Do you think I haven't tried that after loosing thousands of $? Really? 😄 come on...

The weird thing is, that Shopify just keeps telling me there is no problem but my customers regularly can't reach my site and get the message. No one can help.

If you scroll up, you will see that you replied everything looks fine for you... And that is the problem: It isn't because there are people unable to visit the site every month.

https://bitesandtickles-shop.com

[bitesandtickles]

So if it is an ssl issue, why did you tell me before that it looks fine? And why is everyone at Shopify saying "there is no problem" but every month there are users getting the error message?
And if it is an ssl issue, why are you unable to see it, I am unable to see it, but for some people it pops up?
I have tried for over a year now to solve this thing! Because it costs so much. But nobody has an answer. 

[bitesandtickles]

It just keeps happening while shopify tells me all the time there is no issue. And now I am told to google that. It's hilarious, really.

[William90]

I have started to make some progress in getting my website “categorized” I just challenged the rating on Norton and they accepted it. I ran your site through and it’s flagged.  Attached is the screenshot of yours. I can’t figure out how to attach multiple screenshots to show my before and after. Hope it helps! 

 

 

[casey-customs]

lol sorry I didn't realize that you jumped in ahead of KaylaYoung. Yeah I've given you the most amount of information that is available so not much more to elaborate on there. I still have no problem accessing your store. If these customers who are complaining were sitting in my chair on my device they'd have no problems either.

[KaylaYoung]

Hi Casey-Customs,

My site is craftybirch.com.au. It sounds as though my issues are the same as Bitesandtickles. I'm being blocked by Telstra, as well as Avira, Bitdefender, CRDF, Fortinet. McAfee used to also block it, but I eventually managed to get them to look into it and whitelist the site. I've contacted all of the above, none of which can give me any info. 

Like Bitesandtickles, I'm also constantly told "its fine on my end" which I understand - it will work if you're not using one of the providers that are blocking it. My SSL has been re-issued several times, I have even changed domain providers to no avail.

[William90]

Built a site for a client and we are having the same issues as described throughout this chat. It’s appears to be happening in certain networks. 

One thing I did notice is the website is listed as “ uncategorized” with most security firms.    

This is growing more and more frustrating. I have a client who is loosing money from limited site access and then I have an unpaid invoice to my client because their end use product isn’t functional. 

https://lodirents.com

[KaylaYoung]

Yes, its very frustrating. Telstra is the latest provider here (Australia) so mostly every customer is met with a "malicious content" warning, so they won't trust the site even when (if!) I ever actually her it working. Paying every month for a website I can't use.

I've just checked Norton like you did with bitesandtickles, and they have mine marked as safe and categorised as shopping (which is correct).

All services I can find that have it flagged have been contacted in many occasions and nothing seems to be resolved. 

Shopify say it's a domain issue, or no issue, domain and Shopify both confirm there's no issue... yet nothing fixes it. 

Not sure what else I can do.

[Malinesky]

Hi Kayla, were you able to fix the issues with Telstra? I am having the same problem with my new store.

Thanks.

[KaylaYoung]

Unfortunately not. Im still getting nowhere with Telstra or Shopify. As I'm not a Telstra customer, they now refuse to investigate unless I go into a store, but I dont have a store nearby.

[Malinesky]

I hope it would be fixed soon. I just requested blocked page removal from Telstra so hopefully it would work.

[JS888]

Hi Malinesky

Do you fix the issue? I had the same issue for 3 weeks now. I have requested the blocked page removal and tried contacting Telstra, but it is still blocked.

[Malinesky]

Hi, sorry for my late reply. Yes, Telstra has fixed the issue. I reported it as a safe website. When you open your store it will say 'Not safe/blocked". There's a link at the bottom of that page "Report this site as safe" (or something like that -- sorry I should have done a screenshot). I clicked that, then another page popped up. I filled out the form on that page and explained to them that it is a Shopify store.

About 24 hrs later, I got an email from Telstra Cyber Security - I attached the screen shot below. About 48 hours after their reply, it was fixed. Please note I have an account with Telstra and used my Bigpond email when I filled out the form.

[chicibicki]

Thanks for that info, where did you go to report as safe? I am struggling to get anything up on google to find that page

[JS888]

Hi Kayla, have you fixed the issue? I have had the same issue since early Oct.

[KaylaYoung]

Hi JS888,

No, still no resolution with Telstra. I've had one sale through my website in the past 6 months. I'm at my wit's end to be honest. 

[Malinesky]

Hi, I am having same issues with Telstra with my new Shopiy store. How were you able to fix it? I am with Telstra and I can see browse your store.

Thanks!

[KaylaYoung]

Hi Malinesky,

No, nothing yet. Do you happen to know what Telstra package you have? I believe it's their home wifi that blocks it. 

[kelseybennett]

Saaaame thing is happening to me! Did you ever resolve this? Who is your domain providor?

[KaylaYoung]

Hey, I am still having this issue, but Telstra have given me a little bit more insight and then said "we cant help you".
They sent me a link to virustotal.com which showed the 9 security systems that have flagged my site. I've been contacting each of those and reporting a "false positive" - some of them have direct links to report a false positives, others i've just been contacting through the contact us section, others i had to contact through facebook messenger. Some of these are slow, but so far i'm down to 6 (from 9) flags. Once they are back down to 0, i need to re-submit the "misuse of service" with Telstra again for them to unblock. Absolute PITA, but hopefully this fixes it. 
I'd suggest searching for your site on the virus total website and contacting the flagged companies. To note, if i search for craftybirch.com.au it shows the flagged vendors, but if i search for www.craftybirch.com.au it shows its a clean site with 0 flags - so check both.
I changed from Crazy Domains to GoDaddy after being told its a domain provider issue - no change.

[millerge]

Same problem here with Telstra !

[chicibicki]

@bitesandtickles  same problem here, yours must be resolved because I asked a telstra use to check and she can get through, what did you do to get unblocked?

[millerge]

Actually ours just started working on Telstra ISP after a couple weeks.

Nobody changed anything as far as I am aware so I believe it may have just
been because our site was new and still unknown to them and took some time
for them to trust the site.

Hopefully it is a similar situation for yourself.

[chicibicki]

oh thanks for replying so quick, that is good to know thank you, what a pain in the quoit, ETSY is hard because after my first sale they put me on a staggered payout, so I thought I would do shopify and its not going as smoothly as I hoped

[kelseybennett]

I have the same issue! It seems never ending.

[Snoop78]

This is happening to me too for the 3rd time this year. Shopify say, to bad nothing to do with them, the internet provider (Swisscom) say contact your web provider. Godaddy say it’s not them but if I pay for the extra security plan they can fix it 🧐

I’ve lost so much revenue via this problem. Swisscom provide almost everyone with Wi-Fi so I’m really stuck as to how to fix this. 
maybe moving to another webbuilder but I really don’t want to do that 

[millerge]

Same problem here with Telstra ! Is Shopify doing nothing about it?

The responses I can read here are only like everything is fine from them 😞

[KaylaYoung]

From my experience, Telstra and Shopify are both doing nothing but blaming the other. Domain provider (for me, it was crazy domains and then go daddy) try to help but can't see any issue.

Seeing as I moved from crazy domains to go daddy and still have the issue, I definitely think it's a Telstra and/or Shopify issue. Very disappointing that neither seem to be willing to help. 

[BecNooy]

Has anyone had any further tips or advice to get their Shopify website recognised through Fortinet?

Its so frustrating!

www.beautifulscents.com.au

[millerge]

Update to our original post. 

Our issue seemed to have resolved itself. From what I understand nothing was changed by Shopify or Telstra. Although we did spend a good number of hours being bounced between both of their support.

I assume it may have been to do with our site being new and potentially not having built trust with Telstra yet. 

Our site has valid SSL certificates and automatically redirects if someone tries to load the http version, so shouldn't be an issue with that.

This probably isn't all that helpful unless everyone commenting also has new websites, then I hope it is just a timing thing for you until it gets unblocked.

[KaylaYoung]

I've just checked mine and it seems to be working also. I've owned the domain since 2018, and moved to Shopify over 12 months ago, so not too new. Hopefully this is the last time I encounter this problem though. Fingers crossed! 🤞

[chicibicki]

Great news Kayla thank you

[chicibicki]

Thank you! I will wait

[bitesandtickles]

Unfortunately, the issue still hasn't been fully resolved. I still have many customers contacting me that they are unable to reach my site. This is costing me thousands and I gave up all hope shopify will ever fix this. All they ever say is "everything fine from our end"

[WearsMyArt]

I'm having the same issue and I have narrowed it down to my internet service provider. They for reasons unknown have identified my brand new shopify site using a brand new domain as a "known threat / phishing or malware" 

I got on with shopify support and they made a couple of suggestions for changing dns settings in order to improve SSL config (which I think is strange since all of the existing DNS settings were literally created by shopify!) 

I made the changes to no avail. 
I noticed that the site comes up fine when I use my cell provider. Fine from my home. But I cannot access the site from work. I use comcast business. I logged into their security portal and sure enough I see my site being blocked many times. 

I have submitted their form attesting that the site is being falsely flagged and now I'm playing the waiting game. 
I feel your frustration and I don't think shopify is blameless here. They must have done something to get the site flagged in the first place. 

But now it's up to the ISP to get off their butts and take me off the banned list. 

Good luck to us and I hope Shopify figures out the cause and improves their system for configuring a new domain name / ssl cert!!!

[WearsMyArt]

Thank you Nate! Email sent. 

[maximira]

I'm having the same issue with my website maximiramontezuma.com

It says it's been flagged as malware. I got my domain is from GoDaddy. I reached to them and they said it's a Shopify issue regarding my SSL

I'm not tech savvy and I honestly don't know what to do next 

[goodestco]

I'm in the same boat, I've been trying everything for months. Has anyone given up and switched to squarespace or something because I'm getting there. I can only be gas lit so many times by Shopify support haha. This sounds like a root issue plaguing a lot of users. I polled my IG followers and I got some scary data. 40% of people who responded said they couldn't access my site. I too am losing thousands of dollars. We may actually have some kind of case here.

[nrdev]

Hi Goodestco,

I flicked you an email, that I found via the FB page, hope it gets to you.

Shopify have removed all the links to my page specifically to report this issue, but if you need a hand, send an email to me (my email is "nate" and then, at sign, my domain name is my username with a dot au (.au) - silly cryptic messages are silly

Cheers,

Nate