Spam reaches 30-year anniversary

Spam – the scourge of every e-mail inbox – celebrates its 30th anniversary this weekend.The first recognisable e-mail marketing message was sent on 3 May, 1978 to 400 people on behalf of DEC – a now-defunct computer-maker.The message was sent via Arpanet – the internet’s forerunner – and won its sender much criticism from recipients.Thirty years on, spam has grown into an underground industry that sends out billions of messages every day.Statistics gathered by the FBI suggest that 75% of net scams snare people through junk e-mail. In 2007 these cons netted criminals more than $239m (£121m).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7380788.stmOn Spam’s Birthday, Three Cheers for ‘Delete’
Happy birthday, spam.P.S.: Now go away.It was 30 years ago this Saturday that users of Arpanet, a U.S. government-designed precursor to the Internet, logged onto their accounts to find what is considered the first piece of unsolicited commercial e-mail ever sent.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/02/AR2008050203767.htmlSpam turns 30 – still no end in sight [AAP]
This week, the world marks an anniversary that has changed the face — and other anatomical regions — of e-mail inboxes everywhere: the first known spam e-mail was sent 30 years ago on Saturday.But the message, sent on 3 May 1978 by a marketer for the now defunct DEC computer company, went to around 400 people on the west coast of the United States and it wasn’t called spam. Also, the sender dispatched it without any ill intent.To read more of this story in ZDNet, click here.