Internet Scam Artist Fined $1.9M Fri May 24, 2:45 PM ET

By D. IAN HOPPER, AP Technology Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) – An elusive Internet scam artist has been ordered to pay almost $1.9 million back to victims and stop a scheme that used thousands of misspelled Web addresses to trick Internet users into seeing adult advertisements, federal regulators announced Friday.

Federal Trade Commission lawyers sued John Zuccarini of Andalusia, Pa., last October to stop the scheme. Zuccarini set up Web sites that contained misspellings of popular names like the Backstreet Boys (news – web sites), Victoria’s Secret, Bank of America and The Wall Street Journal.

Visitors that inadvertently misspelled a site’s name, like victoreasecret.com instead of the lingerie retailer, went to Zuccarini’s site and were barraged with a hailstorm of pop-up ads for Internet gambling and pornography. The new windows returned to the screen even after they were closed, the FTC said.

“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 the same seven windows that initiate the blitz erupt on his screen,” FTC lawyers said in the complaint.

FTC investigators said Zuccarini makes from $800,000 to $1 million per year by charging advertisers whose ads appear on the browser windows.

Companies targeted by Zuccarini’s scam have filed scores of complaints with regulators and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, an oversight body that handles Internet addresses. The FTC said Zuccarini has lost 53 state and federal lawsuits and has had about 200 Web addresses taken from him and transferred to copyright holders.

Many of the Web sites target kids, including 15 variations on the Cartoon Network’s Web site, and 41 variations on the name of pop singer Britney Spears.

It is unclear whether the FTC will be able to collect the money, which is earmarked for consumer redress.

Zuccarini never appeared on his own or through a lawyer in the Pennsylvania federal court handling the case, even though witnesses testified that he was notified of the suit.

He did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment. Florida lawyer Howard Neu, who once represented Zuccarini, said he had “not the foggiest” idea where Zuccarini is.

Zuccarini does business under many company names, including 22 names using the word “Cupcake.” Victims of the scam should contact the commission at 1-877-382-4357 and use the FTC’s case name, “Cupcake Party.”

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It is rare to see such a disturbing piece of isolationist fluff these days, mostly because I don’t usually take the time to read deeply conservative, revisionist rags like the “National Review”. It occurs to me that if I searched thru the archives of the American press in 1939 I might see similar rhetoric to this article.

One advantage of living in Canada (granted it’s not Victor Hanson’s hobby farm) is the exposure to a number of different media and a plethora of opinions and “facts”, rather than the CNN/CNBC/ABC/CBS unfiltered Bush/Cheney viewpoint. It’s clear, having watched the limited spectrum of information being spoon-fed to right-wing bastards like Hanson, that he wouldn’t have the foggiest clue what is really happening in the middle east, thus exonerating his banal inquiries.

Now granted, it’s 3:30 AM and these are simply my views, based upon an education in this field, an open mind, and no substantial bias in any direction, but they might help Hanson in his quest for answers. Someone had better forward them to him. I know he’ll be willing to listen to my arguments and reflect objectively on the issues.

>”Why does Mr. Mubarak lecture us to become intimately engaged in the
>Middle East Peace process, when Mr. Clinton, who was very recently
>intimately engaged, got the intifada for his efforts?”

Well, Sharon made the intifada by marginalizing the PLO by committing brutal, violent attacks on innocent Palestinians while Arafat was suing for peace. As a result the Palestinians lost faith in Arafat’s ability to win through peace what intifada promised to win through war. Mr. Clinton was a marginal player at best. The same ruthless, greedy bastards that supported Sharon’s campaign financially in the US voted for Bush. So Clinton doesn’t have much to do with it at all.

>”And why does Mr. Mubarak seek to advise us about our proper diplomatic
>role, rather than explain to us why an Egyptian masterminded the deaths
>of 3,000 of our citizens and others of his countrymen are top lieutenants
>of Mr. Bin Laden and are now killing Americans in Afghanistan?”

Because Mr. Mubarak can no longer appeal to the UN because it is a benign bureaucracy, usurped by the US. The fact that several culprits were Egyptian is simply not relevant. Several were also British and American (Walker), so does that mean we should blame those countries because of the fact that 1 person out of tens of millions decided to fly a fucking 767 into the World Trade Center?

>”And why, instead of warning about rising anti-Americanism in his
>country ‹ itself the dividend of the virulent propaganda of his own
>state-run presses ‹ does he not ponder another recent poll, one showing
>that 76 percent of Americans themselves have an unfavorable view of the
>Arab world?”

First of all, show me that there’s any difference between the State-Run media in Egypt and the free press in the US right now (in terms of their unrepentant affirmation of government policy) and I will buy you a beer. Second, those people living in the third world have every reason to be hateful of the US, given their exploitation by US multinationals, the pervasiveness (particularly in Egypt) of rude US tourists, and the cultural imperialism which imprints a Leo DiCaprio/Britney Spears/Backstreet Boys aura upon every society in the world. Thirdly, American isolationism is not a new concept. That 76% of Americans don’t trust the Arab world is surprisingly low, given historical statistics.

>”Why do Middle Easterners become excited and haughty as they gloat to
>you that Americans are unpopular in their countries, but suddenly grow
>shocked, silent, and hurt when you politely and calmly explain why the
>feeling is becoming ‹ and perhaps should be ‹ mutual?”

The fact is that America, as a first world nation and our world’s only true superpower, can and must be held to a higher standard. As PLATO once said, the best form of government is a Benevolent Despot. As the governor of the planet earth in this decade, America must display convicted benevolence. Americans (and anyone) have an innate distrust of that which is unknown to them. The US media have done almost nothing to bridge that gap in helping Americans to understand that which opposes them.

>”Why do so many from the Middle East come here to find freedom, security,
>and safety ‹ and then criticize the country that they would never lea
>as they praise the country that they would never return to?”

As a Canadian who lived in the US for three years only to return home to Vancouver I must wonder aloud what could possibly be wrong with trying to amend a society’s behaviour to include that which you think is morally correct. That is how American Democracy was founded in the first place, and that is a fundamental tenet of a democratic society. America offers opportunities which are obvious however one need not ascribe to the entire ideology to benefit from its stronger points.

>”Why did we incur only anger from Eastern Europeans and Orthodox Christians
>for saving the Muslims of the former Yugoslavia from Milosevic, but no
>praise at all from the Islamic world itself?”

You incurred anger from those few who were displaced from their homes in Bosnia — their anger had little to do with religion. And the Islamic world, I certainly shouldn’t need to point our, is as fractious as Christianty and so one shouldn’t expect tacit support for every small deed. Frankly, I wasn’t aware that America’s participation in such events was strategically designed to win praise.

>”If the West Bank is the linchpin of the current Middle East crisis,
>what were wars #1, #2, and #3 there about, when it was entirely in Arab
>hands?”

The Middle East hasn’t been “entirely in Arab hands” for more than two centuries. In fact, in World Wars #1 and #2, the Arabs and Palestinians as well as other Muslims were promised self-rule and the withdrawal of imperialism in exchange for helping us with our war efforts in Europe. Go rent “Lawrence of Arabia”, dumbass.

>”Is there a difference between Palestinians preferring to kill
>Israeli civilians rather than soldiers, and Israelis preferring to
>kill Palestinian fighters rather than civilians?”

I know that I will get an emotional reaction to this statement in the wake of 9/11 but Terrorism is a tool of war for those who cannot fight wars. Israel must be held to a higher standard because they are clearly an army of occupation. Despite that, Isreali forces have shown no qualms, especially under Sharon’s leadership throughout the years, regarding the targeting of civilians. In the 1950s, then General Sharon burned entire villages and towns to rubble to make a highway safe for the passage of Israeli tanks, thus leading to his current legal troubles battling a Belgian war crimes tribunal.

>”Would the world be angry if a Jewish terrorist forced a captured
>Muslim to admit to his race and faith as he executed and beheaded
>him on film?”

Sadly this is the type of incident that has frequently occurred on both sides of the 50 years war. No one’s hands are clean here. I remind you that war is a brutal, savage thing and atrocities are committed on both sides. The correct question is: if an American special forces colonel captured an Al Quaeda soldier and tortured him, would we even hear about it on CNN?

>”Why do not Iran, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq, who overtly and
>stealthily war along side the Palestinians, simply all join with
>the former to gang up and declare war openly on Israel and then
>settle the issue on the battlefield?”

Because they themselves cannot get along with each other. Just like in Catholicism there are many sects within the Islamic faith, differing widely on cultural and political issues. The US has had a policy over the last 50 years of maintaining a delicate balance between the Sunnis, Shi’ites, and other more moderate groups in order to prevent Pan-Arabism from threatening not only Israel, but also the worldwide oil supply.

>”If we remove the fascist regime in Iraq and help institute
>consensual government there, why would we need troops any
>longer next door in Saudi Arabia? What and from whom would we
>then be there to protect?”

Since Saddam Hussein represents the Sunni minority in Iraq, if you removed him and held an election you would install a Shi’ite government which, when it aligned with the Iranian Shi’ites, would threaten the region in ways never before conceived of. The result would be a permanent and massively mechanized US presence in Saudi Arabia.

>”Has any American in any live broadcast on television ever
>asked a Saudi prince, the king of Jordan, the President of
>Egypt, or the royalty of Kuwait, whether they plan on allowing
>a free press or democratic government? If not, why not?”

American foreign policy is not focused on the global acceptance of democracy. American foreign policy seeks to support those governments which are favourable to US interests, and that will maintain a free-flowing supply of oil.

>”If 19 Americans incinerated 3,000 Muslims in Mecca or Medina,
>and blew up 20 acres in either of those cities with a two-kiloton
>explosion, would the Saudis or the Egyptians a few weeks later
>politely listen to admonitions from the American government about
>their incorrect Islamic policies in the Middle East?”

In 1991, American B-52s carpet bombed and killed somewhere between 125,000 – 200,000 Shi’ite conscripts who were herded out into the Kuwaiti desert by the Iraqi Republican Guard and were essentially starving to death and running out of ammunition and who were effectively waiting to surrender. At issue here is the fact that the incident was the most under-reported atrocity of the war, estimates of the numbers of dead varying so widely because not a single Western journalist chased down the story.

>”If the Eiffel Tower had been wrecked by an al Qaeda hijacked
>airliner, would the French have gone into Afghanistan after the
>terrorists? And if so, how and why? And would they have asked our
>help? And would we have given it?”

Since the French cannot effectively project power into the region, they would have sought the support of NATO. America would have used this as an excuse to do exactly what they’re doing today. If you think that the US is in the region solely to fight a war on terrorism then I have a bridge to sell you. It would have been much more difficult of course to sell the war to the American public, which traditionally turns a blind eye to deaths in foreign countries. Most Americans, including Joe Kennedy, thought that Hitler was a progressive leader while he was slaughtering jews by the tens of thousands in 1939.

>”Why in the last decade have we seen a succession of Israeli prime
>ministers and opposition figures but only Mr. Arafat alone?”

Last time I checked, Palestine isn’t even a country and the PLO isn’t a government. How can one have a democracy without borders?

>”Why do Middle Easterners become far more enraged at Israelis for
>shooting hundreds of Muslims than at Iranians, Iraqis, Jordanians,
>Syrians, Indians, Algerians, Russians, Somalis, and Serbians for
>liquidating tens of thousands?”

Israeli jeeps regularly pull up to taunt the inhabitants of Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza, where Muslims live in poverty without running water, plagued by disease, and walled in by the lack of education. Understandably, the occupants of the camps (young boys mostly) vent their frustration by throwing rocks at these jeeps. The Isrealis return fire with rockets. Does that not deserve criticism? All murder is worthy of examination and analysis — for instance, how many times more people have the US killed in Afghanistan than were killed at the WTC?

>”Will Palestinians cheer when Saddam Hussein launches chemical-laden
>missiles against Israel when we invade his country?”

Yes. Why shouldn’t they? I keep getting this feeling they’re at war… Oh yes, that’s right! THEY ARE.

>”If someone blew up another 3,000 Americans, would the EU do anything?”

Did America declare a war on Terrorism after the hostage disaster at the 1972 Munich Olympics, where the Isreali athletes were held hostage and subsequently killed by Palestinian terrorists? Did they declare a war on Terrorism when the US-supported IRA bombed a hotel during a wedding at Enneskillen in 1981?

>”Has anyone made an inventory of the all the goods, services, and
>equipment that France has sold to Iraq since 1991?”

Has anyone inventoried the military hardware sold by the US over the last 30 years to Iran, one of the most prominent members of Bush’s “Axis of Evil”?

The point of my selective responses to this profoundly disturbing article is to illustrate that hypocrisy is everywhere and that America, as imperialists, are necessarily held to a higher standard than third world countries. America is plagued by the difficulty of being “reluctant imperialists”, wherein American foreign policy requires the projection of power and influence worldwide to keep the economy moving but the citizens of the US are largely isolationists.

-Ian.

On 3/16/02 7:20 PM, “John Hall” wrote:

> http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson031502.shtml
>
>
>
> Some of the better ones:
>
>
>
> If the West Bank is the linchpin of the current Middle East crisis, what were
> wars #1, #2, and #3 there about, when it was entirely in Arab hands?
>
>
>
> Is there a difference between Palestinians preferring to kill Israeli
> civilians rather than soldiers, and Israelis preferring to kill Palestinian
> fighters rather than civilians?
>
>
>
> If the Eiffel Tower had been wrecked by an al Qaeda hijacked airliner, would
> the French have gone into Afghanistan after the terrorists? And if so, how and
> why? And would they have asked our help? And would we have given it?
>
>
>
> What would the world think if Mr. Sharon displayed a revolver and then
> attempted to strike one of his ministers at a Cabinet meeting?
>
>
>
> Why do Palestinians shoot machine-guns up into the air at funerals and
> Israelis do not?
>
>
>
> If nearly two-thirds of the Arabic world believe that Arabs were not involved
> in September 11, why should any American believe anything that two out of
> three people from that region say?
>
>
>
> Has anyone heard a Muslim in the United States condemn September 11 without
> employing the word “but?”
>
>
>
>
>

Looks like the uprising of consumers against the Music Industry has taken a fairly heavy blow. The Music Industry equivalents to Che Guevara and Fidel Castro have both been snapped up by legitimate companies with similarly legitimate (and legal) intentions.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20001102/tc/scour_sale_1.html http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20001102/tc/napster_2.html

As Bertelsmann (AKA BMG) moves into the MP3 realm with a subscription-based model, what is the significance of this for the industry? I think it’s too easy to cry foul and to discount these actions as the “end” of something which could have been better. Nobody’s selling out to the man, here.

BMG is in a much more solid position to deal with the RIAA (they are, after all, a member) and fend off the types of reactionary responses that have been coming from the industry so far. The subscription-based model being discussed is actually good for artists who, via ASCAP & BMI, would get compensated based upon their popularity and the number of transfers from within Napster.

What’s more, such a model points out more than ever before how the Record Label’s role as promoters and distributors of music is becoming quickly outmoded. Record labels do, however, have a role to fulfill.

I had dinner with a friend of mine, Adam Hurstfield, in Vancouver a couple of weeks ago who has achieved some success in the music industry as a producer. It occurred to me, during our conversation, how much his language is like my language — talk of investment, upside, and dealmaking. I realized then and there that record labels are the Venture Capitalists of the music industry. They sink the money to get the music produced, paying for studio time, pizza, and limos; and they help to push the artist to the next level — bigger financiers and bigger promoters, and bigger labels. Their investment should not go unrewarded.

But just as the VC business (who had heard of these guys before the 80s?) evolved out of the banking and finance industry, so boutique record producers (ie. indie labels) are spinning out of the music industry and driving margins and insane profits down. The result: a more equitable distribution of the profits among artists and producers on the up side; and fewer and less risky investments being made by the majors on the down side.

So the old problem remains: MTV and Radio are still the big dogs of the distribution and promotion model — and they suck. While MTV becomes more costly and more successful, and Radio becomes less and less profitable and undergoes consolidation, the window for programming creativity begins to close. Music is now “Researched” and “Tested” before making the playlist and Indie labels can’t break into this cycle because it’s too costly.

Now, along comes the internet not only as an alternative to Radio, but also to the CD store. Napster’s pretty cool these days, but it’s no MTV… and it doesn’t help out indie labels at all because there’s no effective device to return upstream revenue to the producer and the artist.. (in fact there’s no mechanism to return revenue to Napster, either). If anything, this exacerbates the problem: it’s the industry cannibalizing itself. And because it’s IP it’s NOT mainstream.

Napster may have made things even worse now, as it is today, because labels get more and more conservative as they fear that lower-threshold artists could get “Napsterized” and have pirated copies of a CD outstrip the sales in the store. In this light, Christina Aguilera becomes even more favourable because you can be dead certain that she’ll sell enough product to hit critical mass and pull way out ahead of the pirated and bootlegged material. So in an ironic way, Napster has made the music industry suck even more… and Napster is (even more ironically) ultimately dependent upon that industry to generate and promote content.

Now, for a recipe. Take 1 cup Napster, 1 cup MP3.com, 2 cups ASCAP/BMI, and stir:

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001102/tc/napster_ascap_dc_1.html

Build into the Peer-2-Peer model AND the centralized distribution model a subscription-based pricing model with upstream revenue to artists and producers through ASCAP and BMI, just like what has been in place for decades with Radio, and you’ve solved the problem. More powerfully, you have created an alternative medium to MTV and Radio that is self-sustaining, and which is more open and more free to inexpensive promotion by a more diverse range of musicians. And you’ve cut out all the fluff and margin that has made the music industry so polarized.

And now for my Buck Rogers vision of the future: If IP can spread far and wide enough that the internet distribution model, with its lower cost and greater diversity, Internet-based music srevices can begin to appeal to audiences more effectively and more widely than MTV and Radio. With that, you have ghettoized those two institutions and created a medium which is no longer alternative, but hopelessly mainstream — without all of the hangups of alternative media. Britney Spears has to get a day job as a hairdresser.

The difference between this vision and the original Napster vision? Nobody gets screwed. Audiences pay less for the music they want, artists get what they deserve every time, and labels don’t get to be greedy bastards anymore because there are no barriers to entry for new “Music VCs” to enter the game — money and creativity is the only ticket to ride. Record labels are forced to get big and stay big through diversity and breadth, not pushing cookie-cutter imitations and force-feeding Backstreet Boys onto every radio and TV station until we relent and head over to express.com to buy the CD.

One thing’s for certain: the Record Industry’s high times are numbered. But there’s a fundamental role that labels serve and should continue to serve. BMG should be commended for recognizing this and being brave enough to face it with vigor and creativity.

Napster was never meant to be. That should be obvious to anyone who knows what their revenues are. It’d be interesting to know what the Return On Investment was for the VCs that pumped cash into Napster, as a result of the deal.

Stay tuned for my post which theorizes that Napster was built-to-flip and that this “surprising” move of selling out to a major label was part of the plan, all along. Was Napster’s Luciferic logo intended to scare the industry into submission?

-Ian.