Ticketmaster Ireland has announced it will stop the using ‘squiggly lines’ as part of its security procedure for selling tickets online.

The Captcha system – meaning, Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart – involves identifying a sequence of letters to prove the users are humans, not bots, before they can complete an order.

Mark Yovich, President of Ticketmaster International, said: ”While an important step in blocking bots, we know the current Captcha solution can be a frustrating part of buying tickets for fans.”

Ticketmaster’s new system will be replace the hard-to-read characters with phrases, questions or ads instead.

The new system has been devised by Solve Media and used by Ticketmaster in the US since last year. It is similar to Captcha in that users have to decipher characters on-screen, but the new system uses contrasting colours to make the characters easier to distinguish.

Ticketmaster Ireland’s Head of eCommerce Brian Mannion said: “We are constantly working hard to improve the customer’s sales process and delighted to put this new technology in place which will make buying tickets easier.”