esniper: a lightweight eBay sniping tool

CAPTCHA

A CAPTCHA is a test that is easy for a human to solve, but difficult for a computer. CAPTCHAs are used to foil automated tools, like esniper.

In 2006 eBay started to selectively use CAPTCHAs for login. The use of CAPTCHAs appears to be triggered by suspicious activity, such as:

- Too many failed login attempts
- Logging in from a different IP addresses than usual
- Using proxies
- Logging in near-simultaneously from two different IP addresses

There's no definitive way to know exactly what eBay considers suspicious. However, if you are being asked to respond to a CAPTCHA, you can be pretty sure it's something you've done.

esniper cannot respond to CAPTCHAs. To fix this problem:

1. Stop using esniper (temporarily)
2. Log in to eBay using a web browser and answer the CAPTCHA
3. Continue to use a browser to access ebay for the next few days, until eBay stops presenting CAPTCHAs to you
4. Start using esniper again

Try to think about what you might have done to attract eBay's suspicions, and try not to do that in the future.

For example, near-simultaneous logins from different IP addresses can happen if you have esniper running at home, and you are checking eBay while at work. A solution is to have two eBay accounts, one for each IP address.
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