CAPTCHAs Gotcha!

Go Earthlink! Kill Spam!

This is probably a variation on the sort of thing you see if you sign up for a free Yahoo mail account. Called CAPTCHAs, these little bits of technology are designed to present tasks that are easy for humans to accomplish but really difficult for computers. They are not perfect, but they can certainly make a dent in the amount of spam that fills email inboxes at earthlink. Find more about this technology at Captcha.net.
EarthLink to Offer Anti-Spam E-Mail System (TechNews.com)

Known as "challenge-response" technology, the system thwarts the ability of spammers to reach their intended audience with millions of automatically generated e-mails. When someone sends an e-mail to a challenge-response user, he or she gets an e-mail back asking to verify that the sender is a live person.

Once the sender does that by replicating a word or picture displayed on the screen, the original e-mail is allowed through. The system automatically recognizes future e-mails from the same sender, so the verification needs only to be performed once. Without the verification, the e-mail is not delivered.

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