One of my class members is having trouble posting mail through our website.
This is what they are receiving:

I'm having an awful time trying to send messages to people. I keep getting this:
We're sorry for the inconvenience, but to continue please enter in the 5-digit number you see below:
8 4 4 2 3

Sorry, please try again.

An error has occurred, but you do not need to re-enter your data. (Please click here to continue)

So I always do that & then I get another 5-digit number & then have to do it all over again, & again, & again, & again, etc.
So, what's wrong?

If this person is copying and pasting messages to multiple classmates, the system thinks he might be a spammer and is adding in a captcha screen that asks for numbers to prove he is a human and not a computer program. If he enters the digits incorrectly, he would get the Sorry, please try again message.

Scott,

I know that she is only trying to send one message to me and no one else.

Bob

Then there is something in the message that looks like spam. Out system keys off specific words that may be perfectly harmless, but that tend to show up in a lot of spam type messages. We do not give out to the user what they are saying that is tripping up the system for obvious reasons. Unfortunately, this is a necessary process that works well to cut down on the amount of spam that flows through our sites.

I get a similar error message about 90% of the time I, as an admin, enter a new email in the "Send Invite" feature on the home page. If I then copy the random number correctly it goes through but sometimes apparently I get them out of order or something. But I've never understood why it stops me from doing that in the first place--it can't be Spam, and all I've done is enter their email.

I thought it either has to do with my using IE or being on my desktop at home with Vista & whatever the security settings are. There are times when it doesn't happen but I haven't figured out the pattern--I'm sometimes using FireFox & sometimes on an XP machine.

I get it also. I am not sure why. Sometimes even on the first message.

I don't understand the need since people must be logged into the site to send an email.

If people are abusing the email system, the administrator can be notified to determine what to do next.

I have gotten it and thought, "Thank you, CC for protecting us." as I thought it was to prevent an evil computer program from spamming my classmates with garbage or worms as happens often on Facebook.

Just my 2 cents...M:O)

I think it's a good practice to have the security code. I just wish it didn't read that it's an error. It should be a positive message instead. And I don't understand why I sometimes don't get it when I enter an email for an Invite. Seems like it should be all the time if it's really secure.

Mary Smith wrote:

You are absolutely correct - it's not an "error" and should not use that term. IOW, CC needs to change the message. All other sites that do this clearly explain WHY they are asking you to type in funny numbers - it's similar to Scott's explanation - says something like "Prove to me you are a human not a computer". That goes for MS to Google.

Alumni Guy - some sites have their settings so that new members do not need verification. Therefore, if someone registers on a site as any given person, they could possibly begin sending messages to each and every member via the message center. Typically, their method would include copy/paste into each direct message as well as other keyword indicators that they are spamming the members of the class. While our system is not perfect, we have placed a lot of work around building spam prevention and the balance tends to always be tipped toward being a little too tight, rather than lenient, to be sure we are stopping the spam attempts as they come in.

I will review the copy on this message and see if we can make it sound more accurate.