Why do websites ask to type in letters or numbers you see?

Question

This happens in a weird font, I'd like to understand why the website shows a box, typically at the end of a registration, and asks you to type in what you see. I'm assuming it's to make sure you read it correctly. But WHAT'S THE REASON for them to ask? Thanks.

Answer 1

Machines can't read the words that appear in graphics very easily. So they prevent computers that are programmed to sign up for new accounts to start creating millions of accounts automatically. By making you type in what you can SEE, they prevent a machine from doing so, but you can create an account.

Now Blind people who can't see; will have to get someone to sign up for the account for them. Hopefully, they can find someone trustworthy that can help.

Good luck and Happy Computing!

Answer 2

Hi, good question. Well let me tell you exactly why the websites do that! This is for your protection because in the internet many things are exchanged, and your personal information could be stored somewhere that you do not know, and then maybe a computerized data base will take your info and sign you up for many accounts, and services using your e-mail, name, or a combination of both. By asking you to type in the weird combinations of letters at the end of a registration it is something that only a human can do, because a computer will not be able to type in all these different characters because they have only stored data and those funny characters like EuD87DPDeu can not be typed by the electronic device trying to sign you up for things. Hope this helps and good luck

Answer 3

There are several Software Programs that are set to create many addresses in a Domain and thus block the servers. The response of the servers is to come up with this test to make sure you are a real person trying to sign up and not a hacker's tool to make problems. The "letters or numbers" as you put it are in a picture format that would not be easily read by an automatic sign up software and thus the servers of the sites would not be overloaded. That is the reason.

Answer 4

It's there as a security measure to make sure that you're not an automated program designed to automatically register new accounts on the website that you're going to. The letters and numbers are printed in a weird font in order to confuse any software that might try to read the letters and numbers in order to register false user accounts.

Answer 5

It's a security measure that prevents automated 'robots' creating false accounts for spamming etc. The warped letters appear as they do to prevent computers accurately reading them. Machines *can* read messed up letters with the right software, but it's time consuming and tricky.

Answer 6

So automatic scripts and bots dont hammer the site with fake accounts for malicous purposes. The numbers and letters often have patterns or scribbles in the backgroupd.The scripts cant often determine a number/letter from a scribble so have to way to complete the form. It requires human input.

Answer 7

A CAPTCHA (an initialism for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart", trademarked by Carnegie Mellon University) is a type of challenge-response test used in computing to determine whether or not the user is human. The term was coined in 2000 by Luis von Ahn, Manuel Blum, Nicholas J. Hopper of Carnegie Mellon University, and John Langford of IBM. A common type of CAPTCHA requires that the user type the letters of a distorted image, sometimes with the addition of an obscured sequence of letters or digits that appears on the screen.
This CAPTCHA of "smwm" obscures its message from computer interpretation by twisting the letters and adding a background color gradient.
This CAPTCHA of "smwm" obscures its message from computer interpretation by twisting the letters and adding a background color gradient.
This somewhat more sophisticated CAPTCHA of "wikipedia" adds more distortions as well as highlights, shadows, and random line segments to thwart edge detection.
This somewhat more sophisticated CAPTCHA of "wikipedia" adds more distortions as well as highlights, shadows, and random line segments to thwart edge detection.

Because the test is administered by a computer, in contrast to the standard Turing test that is administered by a human, a CAPTCHA is sometimes described as a reverse Turing test. This term is ambiguous because it could also mean a Turing test in which the participants are both attempting to prove they are the computer.

CAPTCHAs are used to prevent bots from performing actions which might be used to make a profit on the part of the person running a bot. Most often, this relates to spam. For example, free email accounts (such as those provided by Google or Yahoo) can be used to send spam, so these sites use CAPTCHAs to prohibit bots from registering. Likewise, many sites which display email addresses could be used by spammers, so CAPTCHAs protect the addresses. Other spam related applications include CAPTCHAs to prevent blog comments, or accounts on other systems that might allow link spam (eg, Wikipedia).

CAPTCHAs are also used by sites that offer multimedia downloads, online polls. However, recently, spammers have taken advantage of the difficulty of the OCR by using images to hide their marketing content.

Answer 8

It's to keep people from writing software that will make accounts on its own and put spam on the site. Some software can read the text in pictures but if they screw it up a little bit, put lines in it and all kinds of stuff, it can mess up the detection process.

Answer 9

It's to keep automated programs from going through and messing things up by signing up for things, subscriptions, websites, etc.
It's a safeguard against hacking and spamming.

Answer 10

When you have to fill in a questionnaire,The ask you to solve the word box so that they know that you are a person and not a robot..