Microsoft, Texas Settle with Spammer Ryan Pitylak
One of the world's most prolific spammers has settled with Microsoft and the state of Texas for $1 million, including the seizure of most of his assets. Ryan Pitylak, 24, was accused of sending 25 million mails per day and was considered the fourth worst spammer in the world by Spamhaus.
Neither Microsoft nor the state of Texas had publicly announced the settlement, which came last month. Instead, the first public mention of an agreement came in Pitylak's personal web log, where he announced he was starting his own antispam consulting firm.
"Over time I have come to see how I was wrong to think of spam as just a game of cat and mouse with corporate email administrators," he wrote. "I now understand why so much effort is put into stopping it." The company, Pitylak Security, would consult clients on methods to curb spam.
