I\u2019d thought I could identify an internet scam when it showed up, but there\u2019s a new one out now. It\u2019s slick and potentially dangerous if you fall for it.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s called the CAPTCHA scam. CAPTCHA stands for \u201cCompletely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart.\u201d<\/p>\n
They are those annoying interruptions when you\u2019re trying to access a webpage. You typically have to click a box to prove you\u2019re not a robot.<\/p>\n
Then you have to type in the skewed letters on the screen and click all the parts of the streetlight, or car or bus or whatever the image is. All this before it allows you to go to the page you\u2019re trying to see.<\/p>\n
The newest scam is that these CAPTCHAs are spreading malware in your computer with every step.<\/p>\n
This is a sneaky scam because we\u2019ve been lulled into complacency about those CAPTCHA verification tests and we might tend to just click on it to get through it. Things are different now.<\/p>\n
If you come across a CAPTCHA, check the address of the webpage by looking for \u201chttps\u201d to be sure that little \u201cs\u201d is present.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how the scams work: You might be instructed to download a file or to press certain keys. Or, after completing the first step, you might end up on a fake webpage that looks a lot like the one you were trying to get to.<\/p>\n
Once you get through the steps, malware is installed on your computer without you knowing and its job is to hunt for personal information on your machine.<\/p>\n
If you suddenly get a CAPTCHA popping up when you don\u2019t expect it, back out of the page. Don\u2019t go there.<\/p>\n
Even if you\u2019re sure you\u2019re safe, don\u2019t download anything that a CAPTCHA steers you to. And as always, keep good virus protection on your computer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019d thought I could identify an internet scam when it showed up, but there\u2019s a new one out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3161],"tags":[28398,3082,1463,28399,53,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-53135","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-internet","8":"tag-farm-family-life","9":"tag-internet","10":"tag-scam","11":"tag-senior-news-line","12":"tag-technology","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114406478753230947","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}