July 16, 2008

R.I.P. CAPTCHA Hello Spam! They've taken Yahoo!, Google, Hotmail and Craigslist. Be afraid... Be very, very afraid.
posted by es el Queso 16 years ago
  • Oh crap, early again. Sorry, 'Bashi. Time zones mess me up.
  • Could this be related to this?
  • Don't worry, cheese. It happens to me too.
  • I spent all this frustrating time unsuccessfully installing a CAPTCHA on a client's site. I guess now I have a good excuse to blow it off?
  • If the spammers manage to break a useful resource like Craigslist I am going to have their asses handed to them on a platter. Or something like that.
  • This article never explains how the CAPTCHA gets circumvented. Anybody have any ideas? My own explanation includes "magic", so I'm not the go-to-guy here.
  • Interesting article - ta honey.
  • Here's an interesting piece that is a bit more in-depth, Nick. It also mentions something about Russian operatives being paid $3 for successfully recognizing CAPTCHA images. Then, there's always the pr0N angle [SFW] that has been around for some time now; desperate individuals are tricked into correctly entering CAPTCHAs for views at some free pics.
  • Interesting, thanks smt.
  • If there's one constant in the universe, it's that there's always a pr0n angle.
  • And thank god for it.
  • I think a pr0nangle is like a pr0nagon, but with less people.
  • I pr0ncrastinated again. *hangs head*
  • Hard to believe, but some hardcore software dudes at a few universities have developed character recognition algorithms that'll break captchas with a decent success rate.
  • Ha! My professorial comment put an end to all the vulgar 'pron' remarks. That's more like it. A proper , buttoned down, chaste, polite born-again MoFi.
  • Yes, very pr0nfessorial and pr0nfessional of you. *bangs head* If I were a pr0n star my name would be "Brad Nailer".
  • Yes, StoryBored, but I feel that the general pr0n-ish feeling was still present in your comment - - what, with the "hardcore dudes breaking captchas" and such...
  • Stop the pr0n!