NEW YORK — The online eyeglasses seller who terrified customers in the hopes of creating buzz about his website and raising its profile in Google searches, pleaded guilty 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 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 U.S. 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.”

Borker achieved something close to instant infamy in late November after The New York Times published an article in which he discussed his habit of menacing customers who complained to him about products purchased through DecorMyEyes. Using several different aliases, he threatened to kill or sexually assault customers, going so far in one instance to e-mail an image of the customer’s home, which was obtained from Google maps. According to Borker, when irate and frightened customers took to the Internet to describe their ordeal — as dozens did over the years, on sites like getsatisfaction.com — it would elevate his site’s position in Google searches.

After the article was published, Google announced that it had changed its search algorithm so that no company could use negative feedback to positive effect.

Borker was arrested Dec. 6 by postal inspectors, who raided his home and hauled away boxes of inventory and his computer. Sullivan released him on a $1 million bond last month, citing the findings of a medical expert who had performed a psychiatric evaluation.

The mail fraud and wire fraud counts stem from the government’s accusation that Borker was selling counterfeit merchandise.