False-positive phishing block on Microsoft Forms personal account – existing Form has QR codes already printed on site signage

Question

False-positive phishing block on Microsoft Forms personal account – existing Form has QR codes already printed on site signage

Taryn Prescott 0

I am using Microsoft Forms with a personal Microsoft account, which I understand is permitted for creating and using Forms for legitimate business purposes.

One of my Forms has been incorrectly flagged for potential phishing and is now inaccessible.

The message states:

“Form can no longer be accessed. This form has been flagged for potential phishing.”

It also states:

“This form can't be distributed as it is asking for personal or sensitive information.”

I have tested this extensively and have established that this is NOT related to the content of the form.

Testing completed

The original Form was flagged and blocked.
I created a completely new Form using the same personal Microsoft account.
I copied the exact same wording and questions into the new Form.
The new Form works normally.
I sent the new Form to another person and they successfully submitted a response.
I then deleted every single question from the original blocked Form.
The original Form remains blocked despite containing no questions.

Therefore, the account is not generally blocked from using/distributing Forms, and the content itself is not triggering the block.

It appears that the specific original Form has been incorrectly classified/blocked by Microsoft's anti-phishing system.

This is particularly important because:

The original Form URL has already been converted into a QR code and the QR code has been printed on construction-site signage that is already installed.

I therefore cannot simply replace the Form with a new Form URL without replacing the physical signage.

I need the existing Form/URL restored, rather than creating a replacement Form.

I have already attempted to contact Microsoft Support and received a callback, but the call disconnected and since then have received random emails from departments sending me in circles and I can't get anyone on the phone to talk this through and fix it! I have been repeatedly directed towards Microsoft 365 Business/Defender administrator instructions, which do not apply because this is a personal Microsoft account.

Can a Microsoft Forms support engineer please advise how a false-positive phishing classification can be reviewed and removed from this specific Form when the owner is using a personal Microsoft account?

I am specifically seeking restoration of the existing Form because its URL is already embedded in printed QR-code signage.

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1 answer

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Answer 1

I'm so sorry about this, Taryn Prescott. However, I must be realistic about the situation here:

Unlike Microsoft Support, Q&A here is a public community forum, and members are fellow users. Contributors here cannot access the Forms backend, review the phishing classification, or manually restore the blocked form.
Unfortunately, there is an important limitation with a personal Microsoft account. There's currently no self-service way to unblock a Form owned by individual user. That process applies specifically to organizational accounts.

Given everything you have already tested, your best option is to keep the original Form and continue pursuing Microsoft Support for a false-positive review. Do not delete it while you are trying to have that specific Form restored:

Visit Contact Us - Microsoft Support > Sign in
Enter / choose an issue > Get Help to make request
Scroll down > click Contact Support to connect to an agent
Select a category > continue and you should reach the chat option.
If you don't see it, go through another category (e.g. Billings and payments...)

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Note: The support contact team only works at certain times, so if the last window shows that it's unavailable, try opening it again the next day. If you prefer phone support, you can leave a phone number. This way, they can call you and help you.

I don't know the scale of your signature so I'm not sure this is helpful at all, but can the current QR code be covered? Use the replacement Form that you confirmed works and print only replacement QR-code stickers or labels, then make them large enough to completely cover the old QR codes and apply them over the existing codes on the signs? Test one updated sign with several phones first, then replace the QR labels on the remaining signs?

I know this is not the answer you're hoping for, but I think it's better to be truthful so you can prepare workarounds or fixes for the situation as soon as possible. I wish I could help further, but this is something only those with access to the internal/backend system can handle, not from a public forum like Microsoft Q&A.