Spammers Learn to Outsource Their Captcha Needs

lukeknipe writes "Guardian Unlimited reporter Charles Arthur speaks with a spammer, discussing the possibility that his colleagues may be paying people in developing countries to fill in captchas. In his report, Arthur discusses Nicholas Negroponte's gift of hand-powered laptops to developing nations and the wide array of troubles that could arise as the world's exploitable poor go online." From the article: "I've no doubt it will radically alter the life of many in the developing world for the better. I also expect that once a few have got into the hands of people aching to make a dollar, with time on their hands and an internet connection provided one way or another, we'll see a significant rise in captcha-solved spam. But, as my spammer contact pointed out, it's nothing personal. You have to understand: it's just business."

Comments

These lead shoes

[future assassin]

are nothing to do with business its just personal. I would be more more then happy to plead guilty if I ever got cought for beating the fuck out of a spammer.

Re:This is just stupid

[Doctor Crumb]

Usually, if a bot is getting past your captcha, it is circumventing it, not solving it. First, check if you are running with REGISTER_GLOBALS set to "off". Then, make sure your site is only accepting form submissions from the relevant form on your own site; a simple referer check is enough to stop most forum/comment spam. Only if you have secured everything else and you have proof that the bots are actually solving your captcha should you blame the captcha.