
Forget proving you’re not a robot, these CAPTCHAs need to prove they’re not ghosts!
CAPTCHAs are a part of modern life on the Internet. Whenever you sign up for something or even sometimes when you just want to log in, you get a series of random, oddly-skewed numbers and letters that you have to read to prove you’re not a robot mass-creating accounts.
Usually the CAPTCHAs themselves are little more than an annoyance; the worst they can do is make you squint hard to see if a certain character is a “P” or an “F.” But, as the Japanese Internet is proving on Twitter, sometimes CAPTCHAs can turn into quite the bone-chilling experience.
Here’s the tweet that started it, and with over 60,000 retweets, it’s touched the spine of many others: (explanation below)
▼ “I’ve never seen a CAPTCHA this scary before….”
こんな怖い文字認証見たことねえよ… pic.twitter.com/E4TiDYrVcI
— くずきりりんご (@kuzukiri_apple) April 15, 2017
The four characters in this person’s CAPTCHA spell out mi-tsu-ke-te, or just mitsukete when read together, meaning “find me.” Combined with the creepily long font that looks like it was scrawled with blood, I’d probably refresh for a new CAPTCHA if that one came up for me.
Several other Twitter users chimed in with their own creepy CAPTCHA experiences:
▼ This CAPTCHA is shi-n-de, shinde, meaning “die.”
Now that’s an Internet ghost who gets right to the point.
誓って申しますがヤラセではありません。https://t.co/jyXIJlDd3K pic.twitter.com/UBWYaw4r2i
— 初期型貴族 (@Tango_jp) April 16, 2017
▼ Next is ni-ge-te, nigete, meaning “run” as in,
“you’d better run away before the thing hiding in your home gets you.”
▼ This one is u-shi-ro-wo-mi-te, ushiro wo mite, “look behind you.”
I don’t know which would be worse, looking or not looking.
▼ And possibly the creepiest one of all: ta-su-ke-te, tasukete, “help me.”
Nope! Sorry Internet ghost, but you’re gonna have to possess someone else!
怖すぎィ! pic.twitter.com/5JvzHEqz57
— taiki (@_Electric_car_) April 15, 2017
Whether Internet ghosts are real or not, I’ll never be mad about having to do another CAPTCHA again, so long as it’s just the usual assortment of random numbers and letters and not a creepy message from beyond the grave.
Although, if these Internet ghosts really want to get their message through, then maybe they should learn a thing or two about how small details can make all the difference between scary and suave.

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