The online eyeglasses seller who terrified customers in the hopes of creating buzz about his Web site, and raising its profile in Google searches, pleaded guilty on Thursday to two counts of sending threatening communications, one count of mail fraud and one count of wire fraud.

Vitaly Borker, who owned and operated DecorMyEyes.com out of his home in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn, admitted in court that he had lied to and frightened his customers, suggesting that business pressures explained his behavior.

“I was answering personally about 100 e-mails a day and lost control of what I was saying at times,” he said, reading a prepared statement before Judge Richard J. Sullivan in Federal District Court in Manhattan. He closed by saying, “I want to apologize to everyone I hurt in connection with my actions, especially those people I threatened.”

Mr. Borker achieved something close to instant notoriety in late November after The New York Times published an article in which he discussed his habit of menacing customers who had complained to him about products bought through DecorMyEyes. Using several aliases, he threatened to kill or sexually assault customers, going so far in one instance that he e-mailed an image of the customer’s home, which had been obtained from Google maps. In addition, he sent warnings like, “P.S. don’t forget that I know where you live.”