Blackmoor Vituperative

A major spammer who was accused of sending up to 25 million e-mails per day has settled a lawsuit with Microsoft and the state of Texas.

The settlement has cost Ryan Pitylak $1 million, as well as the seizure of many of the assets he accumulated during a short-lived career as one of the world’s worst spammers.

At the peak of his spamming activity, the 24-year-old Texas resident was listed as the world’s fourth most-prolific spammer by antispam group Spamhaus.

Now Pitylak is claiming something of an epiphany, saying he has seen the error of his ways and will dedicate his efforts to trying to rid the world of nuisance e-mail. He has even taken to referring to himself as an “antispam activist” in an apparent change of heart of epic proportions.

(from ZDNet, Spammer settles suit for $1 million)

Well of course he’s seen the error of his ways — his business has been shut down, and his only hope of recovering from this catastrophe is to switch gears and try to leverage his experience as a scumbag spammer into a consulting gig.

Maybe he really has learned his lesson. One million dollars is a lot of money to most individuals. But I’m still not sure that’s as good a deterrent as the alternative.