[iwar] [fc:FTC.Shuts.Down.Thousands.of.Deceptive.Web.Sites]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-10-02 05:48:02


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Subject: [iwar] [fc:FTC.Shuts.Down.Thousands.of.Deceptive.Web.Sites]
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FTC Shuts Down Thousands of Deceptive Web Sites

Reuters, 10/1/2001
<a href="http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011001/wr/tech_internet_scams_dc_1.html">http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011001/wr/tech_internet_scams_dc_1.html>

A U.S.  court shut down thousands of Web sites after it determined that
they diverted Web surfers and held them captive while bombarding them
with ads for pornography and gambling, the U.S.  government said on
Monday. 

According to the Federal Trade Commission, John Zuccarini, of Andalusia,
Pennsylvania, outside Philadelphia, operated more than 5,500 Web sites
that diverted Web surfers from their intended destinations and exposed
them to pop-up ads. 

Zuccarini did not immediately respond to calls for comment. 

Zuccarini registered many misspellings of popular sites, such as
www.cartoonnetwork.com, the FTC said, in a bid to draw traffic from
sloppy typists.  Visitors to his sites often could not leave, as the
``back'' button on their Web browsers would be rigged to trigger more
pop-up ads. 

``After one FTC staff member closed out of 32 separate windows, leaving
just two windows on the task bar, he selected the 'back' button, only to
watch as the same seven windows that initiated the blitz erupted on his
screen, and the cybertrap began anew,'' the FTC said in its complaint,
filed in the U.S.  District Court for the Eastern District of
Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia. 

The scheme is especially harmful to children or employees who may put
their jobs at risk when they inadvertently call up pornographic or
gambling-related material, the FTC said. 

The district court has ordered Zuccarini to take his sites offline, the
FTC said, while the case continues.  But as of early Monday afternoon,
at least one site registered to Zuccarini, www.annakurnikova.com, was
still functional. 

Zuccarini had registered 41 variations on the name of pop star Britney
Spears, the FTC said. 

In its court action, the FTC is seeking to get Zuccarini to return the
estimated $800,000 to $1 million he earns in advertising revenues. 

According to the FTC, Zuccarini has been sued at least 63 times in the
last two years by trademark owners, celebrities or others seeking to
recover variants of their Internet domain names.  He has lost 53 of
those suits and been forced to return nearly 200 domain names, the FTC
said. 

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