John Zuccarini jailed for scheme to lure children to porn

February 27th, 2004
By AP

A Florida man has been sentenced to 2 years in prison for registering misleading domain names on the Internet so that children looking for popular sites such as Disneyland would find pornography instead.

John Zuccarini, 56, sobbed and apologized before he was sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge Michael Mukasey.

In a release, Attorney General John Ashcroft said the sentencing ``demonstrates those who violate the law and expose innocent children to pornography for their own financial gain will be prosecuted and they will serve time in jail.''

Zuccarini pleaded guilty on Dec. 10, admitting that he capitalized on the tendency of youngsters to misspell, earning income by fooling them into finding Internet sites that advertise for pornography, among other things.

The government alleged that the practice known as ``mousetrapping'' earned Zuccarini as much as $1 million annually as he toyed with variations of Web sites associated with entertainers, celebrities and cartoon characters popular with children.

Prosecutors say the charges and plea were the first brought under a provision of the 7-month-old federal Amber Alert law, which makes it a crime to use a misleading Web address to draw children to pornography.

Zuccarini was arrested in September at a Hollywood motel room, where authorities believe he was living.

Last year, he was ordered to stop the scheme after the Federal Trade Commission sued him for registering misspelled variations of sites for the Backstreet Boys, Victoria's Secret and The Wall Street Journal.

Companies whose names were exploited have filed dozens of complaints with regulators and the oversight body that doles out Internet addresses.