Spammer started at 14

Michigander Ryan Pitylak was 14 when he started his career as an “online marketer” in 1997. Now he’s a 22-year-old student at University of Texas, living in his own $450,000 house in “one of Austin’s nicest neighborhoods” and driving a “late-model Jaguar,” the Chicago Tribune reports. One of his companies spams people with “5 Free Health Insurance Quotes” or “Incredible 3.51% Mortgage Rates” or “Home Invasion Protection.” The Trib says that people do click on the links in these emails and fill out the forms they lead to, which earns Ryan $3-7 per referral. The insurance agents who pay for these referrals told the Trib they don’t ask questions about how Ryan gets them. Ryan, this article indicates, is a typical spammer, and the typical spammer sends out millions of emails a month – in a very automated way, of course, so he still has time for his university studies. What will be interesting, though, is whether the Federal Trade Commission enforces the CAN-SPAM Act (with which some of Ryan’s messages do not comply) and prosecutes. That might interfere with the studies.