US cracks down on mousetrap fraudsters

NEWS A US court has moved in on an internet scam called mousetrapping by closing down 5,500 web pages. The court claimed the temporary closure of the sites will protect web users from having to deal with a barrage of unwanted pop-up ads and redirects. Mousetrapping is an increasingly widespread practice that turns a misspelled URL into a prolonged battle with pop-up ads for adult sites. John Zuccarini, the alleged fraudster behind the scam, may also have to hand over proceeds received through advertising revenue, which some reports claim could be as much as $1m. Zuccarini rose to notoriety after he bought thousands of domain names based on the misspelling of well-known trademarks and celebrity names.