False positive – Wordfence blocking linked site (?)

Here’s the problem: I run a website that is directory with several hundred listings. Each listing may include a link to an external web site. Links are set up as target=”_blank” (to open a new window.

However, on one listing, I noticed that the link did not work, and clicking produced a javascript-type error message (in a popup box) that said, “This content failed to load.”) This problem went away if I temporarily coded a different web url – so the problem was specific to he URL in the link.

To test, I disabled Wordfence and as soon as I did that, the link worked again. When I re-enabled Wordfence, the same problem recurred.

Disabling the Wordfence firewall didn’t help — only if I fully disabled Wordfence.

I ran a Gravity Scan of the website, and it seemed fine except for a yellow-bulletin “Medium” security notice that a private file was exposed – but that was a false positive. (I checked and the URL of the “private” file link was clearly a public page, linked from the site menu — so false alarm). I also ran a Securi scan and site was clean there as well. So the site doesn’t have malware.

I was not previously aware that Wordfence would do anything to block user access to outbound links on a site. I certainly can see the value of that to protect against sites with malware…. but not when it creates false positives–especially in a case such as here where the service our site provides depends on the ability to include active links on listings.

So question 1: What aspect of Wordfence is causing this? I assume that the website must be blacklisted in some sort of database that Wordfence uses — but how do I address this problem?

Question 2: How do I disable whatever is causing this problem with this particular link on my site? I certainly don’t want to disable Wordfence entirely – but is there is an option or setting that will avoid this problem? I tried disabling all these options:

__Scan file contents for malicious URLs

__ Scan posts for known dangerous URLs and suspicious content

But it didn’t seem to make any difference. Still get the same error when clicking the link.