Cybersquatting is normally taken to mean the bad faith registration and use of a domain name. Typosquatting is a form of this that relies on a web user to make a “typo” when entering an address in his or her browser.
Zuccarini registered the domain names which were misspellings of legitimate domain names for popular sites. He registered 15 variations of a popular children's cartoon site, cartoonnetwork.com, and 41 variations on the name of pop star Britney Spears. Surfers looking for a site who misspell its address or invert a term are taken to Zuccarini’s sites. They are then bombarded with a rapid series of windows displaying ads for goods and services ranging from internet gambling to pornography.
An FTC investigator entered one of the defendant's copycat domain names, annakurnikova.com, and 29 browser windows opened automatically. In some cases, the legitimate site to which the consumer was attempting to go is also launched, so that consumers may think the hailstorm of ads to which they are being exposed is from a legitimate web site.
Once consumers are taken to one of Zuccarini’s sites, it is very difficult for them to exit. In a move called "mousetrapping," special programming code at the sites obstructs surfers' ability to close their browser or go back to the previous page. Clicks on the "close" or "back" buttons cause new windows to open.
"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," according to papers filed with the court.
Finally, the defendant's sites contained a "stealth" feature that was hidden under the task bar, making it invisible to consumers. FTC documents say:
"The stealth page contains no content. Instead, its sole function is to act as a timer, periodically launching additional pages of advertisements, without any action by consumers. Thus, even as consumers struggle to escape defendant's multi-window mousetrapping scheme, more windows launch automatically."
At the request of the FTC, a US District Court ordered Zuccarini to stop his activities pending further order of the court. The FTC will seek a court order to force the defendant to give up his profits from the advertisers.
"Schemes that capture consumers and hold them at sites against their will while exposing internet users, including children, to solicitations for gambling, psychics, lotteries, and pornography must be stopped," said Timothy Muris, Chairman of the FTC. He added:
"In addition to violating the trade mark rights of legitimate web site owners, [Zuccarini] may have placed employees in peril by exposing them to sexually explicit sites and gambling sites on the job, in violation of company policies. With more than 63 previous law suits against him for the identical practices, we believe the court will shut down the defendant's schemes permanently."
The FTC estimates that Zuccarini earns between $800,000 and $1 million annually from his scheme, charging advertisers whose banner ads and affiliate programs are included on his web sites.