Zoho Desk Introduces AI-Powered CAPTCHA for Better Security and Accessibility in Help Centers

Zoho Desk Introduces AI-Powered CAPTCHA for Better Security and Accessibility in Help Centers


What is a CAPTCHA?  

A CAPTCHA is a security tool designed to differentiate between human users and automated systems. It typically presents a quick challenge that only a human can solve—like recognizing distorted characters or solving a simple puzzle. This helps block automated attacks and keeps unwanted spam at bay.

In a help center environment, CAPTCHA acts as a protective barrier. It usually comes in the form of a scrambled image or an audio prompt, which users must interpret and respond to correctly before submitting forms such as logins or support requests.

Why Your Help Center Needs CAPTCHA  

CAPTCHA might appear to users in your help center for several reasons:

  • Blocking Bots: CAPTCHA serves as a defense mechanism against automated tools trying to flood your help center with fake entries. If the system detects unusual or repetitive activity, it may trigger a CAPTCHA check.

CAPTCHA Acronym Breakdown  

C - Completely
A - Automated
P - Public
T - Turing test
C - to tell
H - Computers
A - and
P - Humans
Apart

Types of CAPTCHA Used in Help Centers  


1. Audio CAPTCHA 

Audio CAPTCHAs cater to users who may have difficulty with visual challenges. These tests involve listening to a short sound clip—often a simple math problem or series of spoken numbers—and entering the correct answer. This improves accessibility for users with visual impairments while still maintaining protection against spam bots.

Example: A voice prompt might ask, “What is five plus three?” The user must type in “8” to proceed.


2. Image CAPTCHA

This type of CAPTCHA asks users to identify or interpret distorted images, such as warped letters or pictures. It’s a quick way to confirm a user is human, as bots typically fail to process visual cues as accurately as humans.

  1. Enhancing CAPTCHA in the Help Center  

    To minimize unnecessary CAPTCHA prompts and maintain a balance between security and usability, consider the following best practices:

    • Monitor activity to identify abnormal behavior.

    • Optimize your help center settings to be both secure and user-friendly.

    For Help Center Admins: To reduce spam from unregistered users, CAPTCHA can be enforced during ticket submission by tweaking access settings.

    Previously, we observed that some unregistered users were misusing the Add Ticket form to create spam entries. To combat this, we’ve introduced an option to Enable CAPTCHA for unregistered users during ticket submission across all help center portals.

    This setting will be enabled by default with our latest update. However, you can disable it manually in your portal settings if needed. We still recommend keeping it on to reduce spam and ensure your support agents focus on real issues.

    How to Configure CAPTCHA Settings  

    1. Go to Setup > Channels > Help Center.

    2. Choose the Help Center where you want to apply these settings.

    3. Under the Help Center menu, click Access Settings.

 


    

  1. In the Permissions section, turn on the setting Show CAPTCHA for unregistered users in the Add Ticket form.

Note: Enabling this setting may direct users to the login page if they’re not already signed in.

  1. Alternatively, you can choose to enable Require users to sign in to submit tickets, which also limits spam by restricting form access to authenticated users only.

Note: This creates a gated Help Center, where only signed-in users can create support tickets.

  1. Any changes made will be applied automatically.

Key Takeaway  

Using CAPTCHA—whether image-based or audio—helps protect your help center from fraudulent activity while maintaining a smooth experience for legitimate users. These tools filter out automated spam and ensure your support team can dedicate their time to addressing real customer concerns.

For more details visit pfc-group.com.


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