Sneaky?

DiJones

I have noticed several forms with the option to untick if you don't want further contact are doing the following. Telling me the capture code is incorrect when I know it isn't. When I fill in again the sneaky tick has reappeared. Am I being overly cynical to think this is deliberate?
I stress the code has not been incorrect as I have very carefully noted it.

BlueBella

DiJones wrote: »

I have noticed several forms with the option to untick if you don't want further contact are doing the following. Telling me the capture code is incorrect when I know it isn't. When I fill in again the sneaky tick has reappeared. Am I being overly cynical to think this is deliberate?
I stress the code has not been incorrect as I have very carefully noted it.

I agree, I have noticed this a few times and there has been a few times when I have re-entered the captcha code and clicked submit before just realising they had unticked my pre-ticked box grrrrr! So yes, I think they do it deliberately! :mad:

Zanzib

Yesterday, I entered an advent comp and didn't tick the box to subscribe to the prize provider's newsletter. Went into my inbox and there was the confirmation I'd subscribed to the prize provider's newsletter.

I didn't have the captcha issue as described by other posters either.

hdh74

Having decided I really needed to do something about the amount of emails I get I set up a second account and unsubscribed from loads in my main account. And haven't voluntarily agreed to any new ones in my new account. Yet I've apparently signed up to loads and there are certain ones in my main that just won't unsubscribe - and I mean proper companies not the really obvious dodgy ones. And yes this thing with the captchas has been annoying me for a while.

mjm3346

DiJones wrote: »

I have noticed several forms with the option to untick if you don't want further contact are doing the following. Telling me the capture code is incorrect when I know it isn't. When I fill in again the sneaky tick has reappeared. Am I being overly cynical to think this is deliberate?
I stress the code has not been incorrect as I have very carefully noted it.

Very unlikely as many "capture" codes are run separately (by google etc) to the actual competition and if they wanted they can make newsletter signup a condition of entry anyway.
I find on the rare occasion I get one wrong the tick box for T&Cs can become unticked which is of no benefit to anybody.

DiJones

I too thought the captchas were operated independently but this morning I entered 3 comps from the same promoter. The first required 3 attempts, the 2nd and 3rd 4 attempts. Each time the tick box had been reset to accept. I still feel that it was an attempt to get the entry sent permitting contact, it isn't a matter of unticking/ticking, it's realising that you have to do so as everything else on the form was just as I had completed and a casual glance would indicate only the captcha was a problem.

mjm3346

DiJones wrote: »

I too thought the captchas were operated independently but this morning I entered 3 comps from the same promoter. The first required 3 attempts, the 2nd and 3rd 4 attempts. Each time the tick box had been reset to accept. I still feel that it was an attempt to get the entry sent permitting contact, it isn't a matter of unticking/ticking, it's realising that you have to do so as everything else on the form was just as I had completed and a casual glance would indicate only the captcha was a problem.

As signing up to newsletters/further communications etc can be made a condition of entry there is no point in trying to "trick it" via captchas, some forms just reset the tick boxes if they are incorrectly submitted whether that's from incorrect captchas/missing required information or say T&C tickboxes not marked.

sleepyjones

Yeah, I agree with mjm above ... Most of the Captcha's are from outside providers like Google, ReCaptcha and others so they wouldn't be able to alter the way the Captcha validates, which would be kinda pointless anyway since you could just make signing up a condition of entry.

I've no doubt that sometimes the forms aren't coded properly and some people might be signing up when they chose not to but that's, I would hope, more to do with human error, mispelling a name / field in the database as opposed to anything malicious (although, there probably are people signing you up deliberately whether you click yes or not).

DiJones wrote: »

I too thought the captchas were operated independently but this morning I entered 3 comps from the same promoter. The first required 3 attempts, the 2nd and 3rd 4 attempts.

Can't really explain that though.

mjm3346

DiJones wrote: »

I too thought the captchas were operated independently but this morning I entered 3 comps from the same promoter. The first required 3 attempts, the 2nd and 3rd 4 attempts. .

Which promoter is it?