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Thread: Captcha security out of hand...

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    Gold Member Dave S's Avatar
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    Captcha security out of hand...

    I sometimes wonder if the security that some companies use has not got "out of hand", I'm talking about the little box at the bottom of their contact pages. Name:  Captcha.JPG
Views: 570
Size:  11.5 KB This little box is sometimes so illegible that you need to make a million attempts before you get it right . The instruction stipulates that this is "case sensitive" and spacing is critical.

    As one who wears glasses, I can barely see the smaller digits, let alone decide if they are upper or lower case, and how many spaces are in between them, as a result, this company will not see my business, simply because I can't contact them!

    Surely there has to be a better way to stop the bogies getting through?
    Today Defines Tomorrow
    Errare Humanum Est Remitto Divinus

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    lol ... I thought I was the only one

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    Full Member ghostwriter's Avatar
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    look for the audio option if they have one
    here fishy fishy…

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    ditto, I had the same problem yesterday trying to reset my password for a forum, it 7 of the 9 attempts available.

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    Diamond Member AndyD's Avatar
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    They might as well dump these things nowadays as most the well written bots can decypher them.
    _______________________________________________

    _______________________________________________

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    Gold Member Dave S's Avatar
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    This particular site did not list any alternate contact number or e-mail address, the only way to contact them was to leave a message on their site and they would contact you. Then they put in this little "Bot Stopper", with no "audio" or "Change the image" option. After 7 attempts, I gave up.
    Today Defines Tomorrow
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    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    Years ago I had a task of typing up the constitution of an organisation from a hard copy version. The problem was it was a copy of a copy of a copy... and it was pretty much illegible. The theory was that because I had a rough idea as to what should be in there, I'd be able to decipher it. But it was hopeless.

    So in desperation I ran it through an optical character recognition (OCR) program, which at that stage were at a very early stage of development. And blow me down, the OCR produced the goods with startling accuracy.

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    yes, There are plenty of options available. Like you can ask easy question, select image which name given below that kind of authentications are available. I think they are more easy to solve and stop bogies.

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    I agree, the stupid things only serve to annoy me. I had to try 10 times this morning to enter one to join a forum.

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    Gold Member irneb's Avatar
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    Yep, these things are kind of useless for their intent. Even those confirmation emails aren't totally fool proof. I mean: how difficult would it be for a bot to receive an email and follow a link inside it? It could even set up dummy email accounts on any of a list of numerous free email servers. At least the confirm email idea turns it into a 2 step bot attack, unlike these captcha's which is easily circumventable by nearly any OCR library.

    Methinks it's time to refocus on other ways to keep unwanted stuff out. All these attempts to stop bots automatically seem to be easily circumventable. Unfortunately that's just how it is. Until someone comes up with a better idea, I think these companies are better served by not p-ing their customers off, and rather just do a periodic manual check against bots. I wonder how much clientèle they loose due to these irritations.

    My biggest gripe is usually when I'm trying to get info regarding some product I want to specify in a building project. Most manufacturers require the architect to register with them before they send you the technical specs. And nearly all of them use these stupid stuff. I know I've discontinued specifying certain products due to being unable to "log-in" on some sites - i.e. they've lost several million R in possible turnover, just due to me not wanting to waste several hours trying to get their info. So I can only guess how much they're loosing due to others giving up when similarly irritated.

    I've even reverted to simply phoning suppliers instead - 9 out of 10 of their websites are less than useless due to these things.
    Gold is the money of kings; silver is the money of gentlemen; barter is the money of peasants; but debt is the money of slaves. - Norm Franz
    And central banks are the slave clearing houses

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