computer science

Mousetrapping

Mousetrapping is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Mousetrapping rather than just read about it. In short: Mousetrapping is a technique that prevents users from exiting a website through standard means. It is frequently used by malicious websites, and is often seen on tech support scam sites.

Key takeaways

Mousetrapping belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Mousetrapping to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Mousetrapping from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Mousetrapping is a technique that prevents users from exiting a website through standard means. It is frequently used by malicious websites, and is often seen on tech support scam sites. Mousetrapping can be executed through various means. A website may launch an endless series of pop-up ads or redirects; it may re-launch the website in a window that cannot be easily closed. Sometimes these windows run like stand-alone applications and cause the taskbar and browser menu to become inaccessible. Some websites also employ browser hijackers to reset the user's homepage.

Legality The Federal Trade Commission has brought suits against mousetrappers, charging that the practice is a deceptive and unfair competitive practice, in violation of section 5 of the FTC Act. Typically, mousetrappers register URLs with misspelled names of celebrities (e.g. BrittnaySpears.com) or companies (e.g. BettyCroker.com and WallStreetJournel.com). Thus, if someone seeking the BettyCrocker website typed BettyCroker, the user would become ensnared in the mousetrapper's system. Once the viewer is at the site, a JavaScript or a click induced by, as one example, promises of free samples, redirects the viewer to a URL and regular site of the mousetrapper's client-advertiser, who (the FTC said in the Zuccarini case) pays 10 to 25 cents for capturing and redirecting each potential customer. An FTC press release explaining why the agency opposes mousetrapping states:

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.

See also Phishing Typosquatting Clickjacking Drive-by download

References

External links Mousetrapping and Pagejacking Archived 2016-05-18 at the Wayback Machine by Richard H. Stern "Is Mousetrapping Unfair?", IEEE MICRO (Nov.-Dec. 2001)

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mousetrapping

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mousetrapping claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Mousetrapping before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Mousetrapping ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Mousetrapping

In research: Mousetrapping appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Mousetrapping in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Mousetrapping is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Computer security stubs, Internet stubs, Internet terminology, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mousetrapping outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Mousetrapping in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Mousetrapping means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Mousetrapping out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mousetrapping in simple terms?

Mousetrapping is a technique that prevents users from exiting a website through standard means. It is frequently used by malicious websites, and is often seen on tech support scam sites.

Why does Mousetrapping matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Mousetrapping?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Mousetrapping.