Asked to fill in CAPTCHA when trying to access Amazon, but the images are not clear enough to see

[mryossu]

Tried to access… https://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-BOXNUC5CPYH-NUC5CPYH-NUC-Kit/dp/B00XPVRR5M?tag=pcmaguk-21&ascsubtag=060Lk3ujUJ7NBowmBnSMbkV and was confronted with a Cloudflare page asking me to fill in a CAPTCHA. No idea why this is, but it was impossible, as the images in the CAPTCHA are so indistinct that it is impossible to tell which ones I’m supposed to click.

This has happened to me a few times recently (not every time though), and I have never yet managed to get past the CAPTCHA, as the poor quality of the images means I never choose the right ones.

I don’t seem to be able to attach a screenshot, so can’t show you what I mean, but the images look as if someone has blanked out certain colours, so sections of the images are plain white. This usually doesn’t leave enough of the original image to be able to see which I should choose.

Does anyone know why I get these CAPTCHA requests, and if there is any way of getting past them, given that it’s nigh-on impossible to make out what the images are?

Thanks

[sdayman]

That’s very surprising that you’d get anything Cloudflare when visiting Amazon. Can you post a screenshot of this?

[mryossu]

Actually, I think it was because I clicked an Amazon link from a Google search page. Going straight to the Amazon page seems to be OK. The Google link sent me to…

Attention Required! | Cloudflare (zdtc.app)

…which is where I got the CAPTCHA request. You can see a screenshot of it here…

The bottom of the page (which you can’t see in the screenshot) says…

Cloudflare Ray ID: 5fd70e828dd24066 • Your IP: (removed) • Performance & security by Cloudflare

(to be continued in the next post as I’m only allowed to post one image at a time…)

[mryossu]

If I click on the checkbox to fill in the CAPTCHA, I get the following…

As you can see, pretty hard to work out what I’m supposed to choose.

Thanks for the reply. Any ideas?

[sdayman]

Their images are more clear when I see them. Try sending that image to support AT hcaptcha DOT com and see if they can figure out the problem.

In the mean time, maybe Skip or that reload arrow might bring up something easier to solve.

[mryossu]

@sdayman Thanks for the repl. As it happens, that is one of the more clear ones. Most are far worse.

[mryossu]

@sdayman Sorry, hit Ctrl-Enter by mistake and it posted!

I’ve tried skipping and reloading, but it doesn’t usually help. They are generally so indistinct that I can’t see all of the clearly enough to get them right, and usually end up abandoning the page.

Thanks for the email, I’ll try that and see what happens

[hCaptchaSupport]

Hi there, you may have been seeing a beta test being run. Does switching browsers change it? If you see this consistently, please email support AT hcaptcha DOT com with your browser / device details and IP and we will check.

[mryossu]

@hCaptchaSupport If it’s a beta test, it’s been going on for a while now, as I’ve seen this behaviour over a week or so.

In only have Edge and IE installed on the machine, but it happens the same in both of those.

I did email support, and got a canned response about disabling my ad blocker (which of course didn’t make any difference). I’m hoping to get a more helpful reply from a real human.

[hCaptchaSupport]

OK, we’ll follow up with you via email.