Keep Your Guard up so You Don’t Get CAPTCHA’d
- April 11th 2025
- Community
Photo: Pixabay
By Carolyn Cadigan
You’ve probably seen those CAPTCHA challenges on websites that ask you to prove you’re not a robot or have you click images or enter wavy letters and numbers in a box. But did you know that CAPTCHAs have become yet another way for cybercriminals to trick users into downloading malware, which is software that can disrupt, damage, or gain access to a computer system?
Because these challenges are so common on websites, users often respond out of habit. Hackers use a fake pop-up message that looks like a CAPTCHA challenge and rely on the unknowing user’s automatic response to redirect the user to other pages. By taking further actions on those pages, the user enables the hackers to run dangerous commands on the user’s computer that can compromise the user’s system and ultimately allow the hackers to steal passwords, financial data, and personal information.
Other instances may use a fake pop-up message along with urgent or misleading language. The user may be instructed to download a file or install a browser extension. By following through on these instructions, the user may actually install malware on the computer himself.
Experts have shared tips on how to avoid falling prey to this scam:
- Always check the URL to ensure the website is legitimate before responding to a CAPTCHA challenge. Look for “https://” in the URL and avoid sites with unusual domains.
- Be cautious of CAPTCHA pages that appear on unexpected websites. Legitimate CAPTCHA pages are usually found on websites that require user verification, such as a login or account creation page.
- Never download files from CAPTCHAs. A legitimate challenge will never require you to download software or extensions.
- Avoid clicking on pop-ups, especially those that use urgent or misleading language.
While these suggestions are helpful, perhaps the best advice is to avoid responding out of habit, to pay close attention, especially when browsing on unfamiliar websites, and to be sure to install up-to-date antivirus software.
