Captcha is a technique used by websites to verify that processes such as setting up an email address are being carried out by a human rather than by an automated computer program.

For example, you are often asked to enter a series of letters and numbers which are depicted in an image on the page when adding comments to a website.

According to security firm BitDefender, spammers have managed to get around this technique to set up hundreds of new email accounts in Yahoo and Hotmail which they are using to send out unsolicited email.

"There are only about 500 or so new accounts being created every hour. We've seen 15,000-plus Hotmail accounts being used so far. It's hard to estimate how many spam emails have already been sent," said BitDefender's Viorel Canja.

Another security firm, SoftScan, recently said that spam levels increased last month.

www.bitdefender.com

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