What is CAPTCHA word verification, and why does Yahoo! use it?
Description
Learn why you need to enter a verification code before you can access certain parts of Yahoo!.
Resolution
Yahoo! may sometimes prompt you to enter a verification code, as a way to protect against spam or other unauthorized account access. Once you've entered the code, we know that you're a person and not a spam-sending computer. This is a "CAPTCHA" test, which stands for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart" (trademarked by Carnegie Mellon University).
You may receive the CAPTCHA Send-Verify prompt when trying to send an email if your message contains any of the following items:
- HTML
- Links
- Embedded graphics
- Attachments
- Forwarded messages (chain letters, jokes, and so on)
To confirm this, try sending a "Plain Text" message with no signatures or attachments to the same recipient. If you are not prompted with the CAPTCHA Send-Verify screen or the email arrives as expected, then the issue is most certainly related to one of the items listed.
If you are not able to see the character string, please click Try a new code.
Note: According to the Yahoo! Mail Terms of Service (TOS) the following are prohibited:
- Transmission of junk mail, spam, chain letters, or unsolicited mass distribution of email.
- Transmission of material that is unlawful.
- Transmission of material that is harassing, abusive, threatening, harmful, vulgar, obscene, or invasive of another's privacy.
If you experience difficulty with the CAPTCHA code on a mobile phone, please try sending the message using a PC instead.