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All Comments on: What's a Captcha?

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Dan Ullman
June 19, 2006 2:18 PM

I saw an interesting Captcha the other day. Instead of a picture it had an easy to answer question. Something like "Which is not a tree? with six possible answers. The wrong answer was "2x4". Since it was text it could easily be used by a screen reader. It would be interesting to know how easy it would be to beat.

Ken
June 20, 2006 7:56 AM

I didn't know that these things had a specific name. I suppose "captcha" sounds better than "gotcha". :-)

I encounted one the other day (I think it was eBay's "contact the seller" link) which included a "hear the code" link next to the picture. I guess they're getting enough flak from people who can't see the pictures to enter the code.

Greg Bulmash
June 21, 2006 10:34 AM

Of course, the way spammers get around CAPTCHA technology is to proxy the CAPTCHA. They put up a site offering something like free photos of adult entertainers, then require the user to run through a CAPTCHA to get in. Thing is, it's your CAPTCHA, and when the user runs through it, the answer is sent to your site so the spammer can spam you.

The real trick would be a CAPTCHA that could not be proxied.

Danny Garcia
June 22, 2006 7:52 AM

Thanks Leo, that kinda "CAPTCHAD" my imagination.

shirley warbington
September 10, 2007 3:16 AM

having to go to captcha every time I change rooms is a pain. Can I get around this?

Richard Oxford
September 1, 2009 5:37 PM

I just want to prove I have a gmail account.
Adsense is saying I do NOt Have an account
but, I have the Verification Code.But where can I
enter it. all I am trying to do is get an adsense
I.D. thats all,its making me NUTS!!

Bill
September 11, 2012 7:57 PM

My problem is that I often can't tell whether a letter is upper or lower case. Does it matter?

Mark J
September 11, 2012 8:02 PM

@Bill
Some are case sensitive. Others are not.

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