A snapshot of the verification test requiring customers to click all the lizzards in the pictures. (Photo from web)
An online verification to buy railway tickets has turned the process into an intellectual challenge, meaning customers must be Internet savvy with fast clicking fingers, sharp eyes and a quick mind.
12306.cn, the only official website in the country allowed to sell train tickets, has been receiving numerous complaints about the verification code test users must pass to buy tickets online.
The test is a multiple-choice question: "Click all the XXX from the pictures below" requiring customers to match images to descriptions of things such as recorders, electric generators, fans and humidifiers.
The security check is meant to prevent auto logins or malicious purchasing by machines. It is supposed to be an easy way to tell if buyers are human or machines, but due to the low resolution of the tiny pictures and ambiguous questions, people have been struggling to answer correctly.
With low-pixel, fuzzy images people can only identify the color and shape of objects rather than know exactly what they are.
When questions become harder and users need double the time to try and identify objects - "Click all the XXX and XXX" - the chances of securing a ticket dive to near zero as those to popular destinations could sell out in seconds.
Since customers can only make a purchase after clicking all the right pictures, any wrong answers or refreshing of the web page to get easier questions may cost the chance to get a ticket.
Clearly frustrated, buyers found plenty of allies online who have suffered similarly. Some Internet users edited the verification pictures to ironically mock the system for failing to do the job.
They created fake questions including "click all the pictures of handsome men", "all cartoon characters who are short" and "all pictures of the straits of the Bosporus" to show how absurd the questions could be.
One potential buyer joked: "You know nothing when it comes to those pictures". Other netizens said: "Only straight A students could pass this", "I feel illiterate when I just try to buy a train ticket", "Do I have to take an IQ test before buying a train ticket?... Actually I just wanna go home".
Li Tiejun, an engineer who works at Cheetah Mobile Inc, said the picture verification targets ticket scalpers and software that both intend to make a profit from people by purchasing large numbers of tickets and reselling them at a higher price with commission fees.
According to a customer service telephone operator of China Railway, some software can identify simple verification, which they used before, 1,000 times per second. It creates an unfair purchasing environment for other users. "Those pictures are effective since so far the software cannot pass it automatically."
It is reported that the authority has made adjustments to the verification test but no specific changes have yet been announced.
The most easily identified pictures are bicycles, money and tigers, while the hardest include ladybugs, prayer wheels and sprayers. Having to distinguish between a squid and an octopus or boxes and containers has bewildered almost everybody.
It's becoming a fierce competition for people trying to buy tickets online for Spring Festival in February, during which billions of train journeys are taken every year.
Based on the regulation that people can only purchase tickets up to 60 days in advance, potential customers today will be able to buy tickets for Feb 6, which is just two days before this year's Spring Festival.
