Oldest case of spam email | Techday, May 3rd
The earliest case of spam email, that we know of, was sent on this TECHDAY in history, May 3rd 1978. Unsolicited bulk email, which is another term for spam, is a massive problem nowadays affecting companies and individuals. Gary Thuerk, who worked at Digital Equipment Corporation, composed a message promoting the DECSYSTEM-20 computer.
Instead of the usual practice at the time, of sending the informative message to one recipient at a time, Thuerk’s assistant took the initiative to send it out en masse, receiving strong negative criticism for this action from ARPANET users.
Spam emails, also known as unsolicited bulk emails, are a type of electronic junk mail, sent in large quantities. These emails are often sent for the purpose of advertising, phishing, or distributing malware.
The email caused widespread outrage, as it was seen as an invasion of privacy and a misuse of a valuable resource. As a result, the term “spam” was coined to describe this type of unwanted email, and the practice of sending spam emails became more widespread over time. In the years that followed, various measures were put in place to try to reduce the amount of spam emails being sent, such as the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 in the United States and the EU Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive in the European Union. However, spam emails continue to be a problem today, with billions of spam emails being sent every day.
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Author: PC-GR
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