def remove_accents(raw_text):
"""Removes common accent characters.
Our goal is to brute force login mechanisms, and I work primary with
companies deploying Engligh-language systems. From my experience, user
accounts tend to be created without special accented characters. This
function tries to swap those out for standard Engligh alphabet.
"""
raw_text = re.sub(u"[àáâãäå]", 'a', raw_text)
raw_text = re.sub(u"[èéêë]", 'e', raw_text)
raw_text = re.sub(u"[ìíîï]", 'i', raw_text)
raw_text = re.sub(u"[òóôõö]", 'o', raw_text)
raw_text = re.sub(u"[ùúûü]", 'u', raw_text)
raw_text = re.sub(u"[ýÿ]", 'y', raw_text)
raw_text = re.sub(u"[ß]", 'ss', raw_text)
raw_text = re.sub(u"[ñ]", 'n', raw_text)
return raw_text