"Suspicious internet activity" captchas

[renegade7]

Simply put, I dislike these.

First, I don't like having to navigate away from the page I'm trying to post on and log into my email and wait several minutes for a confirmation code.

Second, when I try to click on the privacy policy link (after all, I feel I have a right to know if I'm accidentally agreeing to be spammed), I get a 403: Forbidden error. That seems pretty sketchy.

To my knowledge, nothing suspicious, illegal, or otherwise underhanded is going on with my wifi, nor would I expect that SOLVEmedia of all people would know if there was. Is anyone else seeing this? Any chance of this being fixed?

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I got that message yesterday. I thought it was because I typed in the wrong captcha. I think I put in 'tpye' instead of 'type'. It still let me make the post, but the next time I posted I got that message.

However, I didn't have to get an e-mail. I just clicked that little refresh captcha button down below and made sure I entered the thing correctly. Haven't seen it again since.

 

[Rylot]

Yeah, check the Tech Team Group page for some more information: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/chat/Tech-Team

It's been cropping up with a few different users and the Escapist Staff is looking into why it's happening. I guess just try reloading the captcha (might take a few times) until a normal one comes up.

 

[antidonkey]

I've been hit with this 2 or 3 times. I agree that it's highly annoying but since I like this site, I went through with the whole thing. I haven't noticed any more spam than usual. Then again, I had it sent to an email account specifically setup for this kind of thing. Still, I wouldn't be the slightest bit upset to see it go away.

 

[happyninja42]

I just click the little refresh button at the bottom of the window to have it refresh a new question. Work fine.

 

[briankoontz]

This reminds me of the constant messages I get about how my Google email account has been compromised.

For one thing, Google, it's YOUR JOB to keep my email secure, so don't tell me about how you suck at security, fix the problem yourself.

For another, I really don't care if someone in China wants to read my messages to my friends. If they have such a boring life that this is valuable to them, then I hope they're enjoying it. I'm happy to provide mild entertainment to people thousands of miles away.

Also, Google, all internet data is already going into NSA databanks, and you utterly failed to warn me about THAT. So get your warning priorities in order.

This is also reminiscent of all the warnings that anti-virus companies give for how your system is doomed unless they intervene.

So the process is Scare You, then offer to "help you", by which they mean control you.

"Suspicious internet activity", says captcha. It's YOU I'm now suspicious of.

 

[IceForce]

This seems sketchy as hell, the way it asks for your email like that.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

I've gotten it a few times. I've reloading the page and then posting. I sure as shit ain't clicking on what it wants me to, it reaks of spy/mal/whateverware.

 

[RandV80]

Sounds like Solve Media itself was compromised, I don't know what other sites use it but I'd imagine they're seeing the same thing too.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

I hit the Tech Team up on this when I first got it about a week ago. Kross (a member of the staff and licensed wizard) told me that he's looking into stopping it and he can understand why anyone would hate it.

Until then, hit the small refresh button by the text field, or just fail the CAPTCHA entirely. It'll refresh the CAPTCHA and you'll usually get one without requiring an email.

EDIT:

It looks like they're saying "we think there's something in your neighborhood solving captchas for spam bots, so something something email address, you're a human and get ...easier pictures?"
Sorry for the annoyance, please just hit the refresh button. :/
I'll see if someone can yell at them for harvesting emails.

From the Tech Team usergroup chat, posted July 25.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

I feel like such an idiot. >_<

Thankfully I just gave them my gmail "dumping grounds" account.

 

[Something Amyss]

I got that message yesterday. I thought it was because I typed in the wrong captcha. I think I put in 'tpye' instead of 'type'..

You can do that without bringing up the "suspicious activity" thing.

I just hit refresh, which is apparently the official Escapist answer.

Of course, I get captchas like 500 times in a row, so I'm refreshing a lot, but that's another problem.