Internet Safety News
Elusive "Mousetrapper" Shut Down
by Anne Collier
He uses scads of misspelled web addresses to trap kids, and everybody else, including 15 variations on the spelling of a popular web site about cartoons.1 A U.S. federal court has, at the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) request, ordered John Zuccarini to pay approximately $1.9 million back to victims and stop a scheme that used thousands2 of misspelled web addresses to trick Internet users into seeing adult advertisements, but it's unclear if the money will ever be collected. Zuccarini cannot be found, and he's never shown up in court or sent a lawyer on his behalf, though he "has lost 53 state and federal lawsuits and has had about 200 web addresses taken from him and transferred to copyright holders."3 The FTC says Zuccarini makes $800,000-$1 million a year by charging advertisers whose ads pop up all over people's computer screens.
When asked what recourse they have if Zuccarini doesn't shut down or pay up, FTC attorney Eileen Harrington said, "we're continuing to look for him actively and, yes, we have recourse. If he violates a federal court order, he may be found guilty of criminal contempt."4 That would move this from civil to criminal court and, quite possibly, the issuance of a bench warrant for his arrest, which would put law enforcement on the job of finding him. When asked if the FTC could go after the advertisers paying Zuccarini for his online mousetraps Harrington said, "we have to look at that on a case-to-case basis whether any third party could face liability for involvement with him. We've certainly notified advertisers about the court order."5 That's a service to them, she explained, but it also "puts them on notice."6
1"Internet Scam Artist Fined
$1.9M." The Associated Press. May 24, 2002, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-FTC-Mousetrapping.html.
2Court Shuts Down Cyberscam Permanently.
Federal Trade Commission. May 24, 2002, http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2002/05/cupcake.htm.
3Ibid.
4 Eileen Harrington, FTC attorney. Personal communication,
May 2002.
5Ibid.
6Ibid.
Anne Collier is editor of the SafeKids/NetFamilyNewsletter and president of NetFamilyNews.org, a nonprofit news service for parents and teachers of online kids.
