Feel like your inbox is a little light on offers for a great deal on a mortgage? Maybe that’s because Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott this week sued one of America’s most notorious spammers – a 22-year-old junior at UT – under two Texas laws – the Electronic Mail Solicitation Act and the Deceptive Trade Practices Act – and the way-too-cutsily titled Federal CAN-SPAM Act.
Perhaps taking the “hook ’em” slogan a little too seriously, Ryan Pitylak built a spam empire that, according to the case, unleashed hundreds of thousands of spamlets unto the world. Sending unsolicited e-mails is not technically illegal – if you have a product that can actually Enla:rgeYourSma:llSize, you have the right (if not duty) to legally trumpet your wares via cyberspace. However, sending misleading, unsolicited e-mails is. That’s what Abbott charges Pitylak and business partner Mark Trotter were doing, thousands of times a day. The suit describes Pitylak sending messages from fake credit and mortgage entities designed to fool people into submitting private information; Pitylak then sold that information to marketing companies for (according to the case) up to $28 a pop. While the attorney general as yet has no idea how much Pitylak may have earned off his endeavors in the Knowledge Economy, a 2004 Chicago Tribune investigation found him to be the owner of a $450,000 house with a spiffy new Jaguar parked out front.
“He’s living pretty well for a UT student,” said Tom Kelley of the attorney general’s office. But perhaps not for long: Pitylak faces federal fines of up to $250 per spam, and state fines of up to $20,000 per violation.
This article appears in January 21 • 2005.