[BUSINESS] how are bots getting past captcha

[rx_tom]

I have this captcha going on where you have to move a certain image from the right to the left side, it's a question. Not going to post the exact line so bots do not get smart.

Question: Which fruit is red.

Choices: lemon, pineapple, strawberry and banana strawberry,

you have to move the strawberry from the right to left column to authenticate.

These bots seem to do it and register an account on my blog.

Any ideas?

[DonMK]

They read code not images

[BrasSmonkey]

They read code not images

yup if you have a ad blocker you can see that long code

[TheButcher]

They read code not images

yup if you have a ad blocker you can see that long code

I have never used one but that is interesting boss

[vblogger]

Bot coders have become very good at their coding skills, if they spent the time building worthwhile scripts then they would be heroes, rich heroes.

[BrasSmonkey]

They read code not images

yup if you have a ad blocker you can see that long code

I have never used one but that is interesting boss

i dont know what its called but its like a base 64 code

[tacnet]

I dont think this is a bot

We have been seeing the same over the last 6 months or so. We get 4 or 5 affiliate contact forms a week just filled with spam rubbish even though we had our own propietary catcha code and then upgraded it to google re-captcha.

Bots are clever but they are not that clever. The most they can do is try and OCR the text. The base 64 code (called md5sum) is just a checksum for any individual image.

A bot can build up a database of md5sum's but it doesnt help them actually read the image

My guess is that these are just people paid to spam any form they can find

[TheButcher]

I dont think this is a bot


My guess is that these are just people paid to spam any form they can find

I agree let me explain what I have seen. I have always manually approved new users here after their first post, they joined made a post and it was hidden, once approved they could post real time, but a few months ago I started noticing a lot of new registered accounts adding a profile image, website url and signature, but not necessarily posting. I tried Google their email addrsses and user names, to my surprise I found them listed for the word sponsorchat. So I realized what was going on, they hire people to spam registration forms, add their link so they get picked up by search bots. So I changed that , now a new account can not add a sig or profile information ( like their website url) until the first post is approved.

The reason i did it this way is so they can not add gambling and casino links in the signature and or website url, I try stay way clear of gambling here. Most of these "Phantom" new accounts were adding gambling/casino links.

[tacnet]

I dont think this is a bot


My guess is that these are just people paid to spam any form they can find

I agree let me explain what I have seen. I have always manually approved new users here after their first post, they joined made a post and it was hidden, once approved they could post real time, but a few months ago I started noticing a lot of new registered accounts adding a profile image, website url and signature, but not necessarily posting. I tried Google their email addrsses and user names, to my surprise I found them listed for the word sponsorchat. So I realized what was going on, they hire people to spam registration forms, add their link so they get picked up by search bots. So I changed that , now a new account can not add a sig or profile information ( like their website url) until the first post is approved.

The reason i did it this way is so they can not add gambling and casino links in the signature and or website url, I try stay way clear of gambling here. Most of these "Phantom" new accounts were adding gambling/casino links.

Ahh interesting. I hadnt thought about that but yes that does make sense

Why they keep filling out our affiliate contact form is beyond me though as thats not posted anywhere.

[TheButcher]

I am just guessing why they would register complete the website url add a signature not post. It is very obvious they are not real posters because after 18 years I can tell right away form the user name and email if it is a serious person or not. They mostly have a very long random email address and some weird and crazy user name. That is why I do not count the newly registered users in the member list or send them board emails.

On your point about filling out an affiliate contact form I guess the people doing it are not too smart to realize which forms to complete. Just anther guess.

[tacnet]

On your point about filling out an affiliate contact form I guess the people doing it are not too smart to realize which forms to complete. Just anther guess.

Yeah I think you are right. Now I think about it, our contact form is the only one that accepts urls so that's probably why they keep hammering it. All our other forms are text only and thats no good to them

[Webby]

It has become cheaper to hire people than code a spambot?

[dom_trev]

It has become cheaper to hire people than code a spambot?

[PornPete]

The only bots I want on my sites are search engine ones.

[pokerking]

The only bots I want on my sites are search engine ones.

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