Spammers Learn to Outsource Their Captcha Needs 221
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."
I call job theft! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:it is just business (Score:1, Funny)
Heh. The other day I got a junk mail offering to help me sell my house. I talked to the landlord, but he assured me, I can not sell my apartment.
Re:it is just business (Score:4, Funny)
Just business? (Score:5, Funny)
I'm currently hiring 3rd world citizens to kick spammers in the crotch.
To the spammers: it's nothing personal. You have to understand: it's just business.
Yaz.
Re:it is just business (Score:1, Funny)
Until we get enough cloning centres established, we could manufacture sperm by factory-farming boys in battery cages. Give them drugs to make them reach puberty sooner, and twist their necks once you've extracted a certain amount of semen from each one (and that's not much; each ejaculation could produce a few hundred million babies with more efficient logistics). Burn the corpses in power stations (it'd be the first time in history a man had done anything useful). Separate out most, but not all, of the Y-chromosome-carrying sperm; so most, but not all, of the babies born will be girls. If a woman is pregnant with a boy foetus, tell her it has a nasty defect and she needs an abortion; then induce it and raise it in an incubator until it's ready for independent existence. Keep the exact method of sperm production a secret. The sperm samples would be indexed by attributes; so when a couple seeking to have a baby went "to have one partner's DNA made into injectable form", in reality the nearest matching sperm would be chosen to inseminate the other partner's egg.
Re:A long-time problem (Score:3, Funny)
Maybe it's just too early in the morning for me, but what does that mean? That typing distorted text is easy? That it's smart/dumb? That it makes you love your neighbor as you would have them love you?