Texas sues for millions
Two spammers sued by the state of Texas
The state of Texas is seeking millions of dollars from two men it accuses of sending millions of spam messages.
Ryan Samuel Pitylak, a student at the University of Texas, and Mark Stephen Trotter of California are the brains behind three companies - PayPerAction LLC, Leadplex LLC and Leadplex Inc. - that, it is alleged, sent millions of spam messages pitching fraudulent services.
An attorney for the defendants claimed: 'Leadplex and PayPerAction are legitimate Internet marketing companies that are in complete compliance with the federal CAN-SPAM Act.'
SpamHaus.org, however, lists the pair and their companies as 'major spammers, sending spam to generate "leads" they then sell'. And in July 2004, the Chicago Tribune referred to Pitylak as 'one of the nation's most prodigious manufacturers of unsolicited commercial email.'
Spam traps set up by Microsoft received 24,000 emails from the pair's operation that Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott charges are illegal messages.
According to the Kansas City Star, 22-year-old Pitylak owns a renovated bungalow valued at $450,000 in Austin, Texas and drives a blue Jaguar.
Attorney General Abbott said: 'We are going to make it very clear that spamming is a money-losing proposition ... we are going to take away everything we can.'
14 January 2005
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