The History of Spam
The Dawn of Spam
In the late 19th Century Western Union allowed telegraphic messages on its network to be sent to multiple destinations. Up until the Great Depression wealthy North American residents would be deluged with nebulous investment offers. This problem never fully emerged in Europe to the degree that it did in the Americas, because telegraphy was regulated by national post offices in the European region.
History of Internet "spam" (1978-Present)
The earliest documented spam was sent in 1978, by Gary Thuerk.
Although spamming has existed on the Internet since as early as 1978, the first major spamming incidents didn't take place until the early 1990s.
Spamming began becoming a major problem at the same time that the Internet began its exponential mainstream expansion in 1993 (also known as Eternal September).
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There's (ever so slightly) more on the page, but when I think of spam, the first and foremost image in my mind is an over-cluttered inbox. I think of going to my web mail, and having to delete 90 % of the new messages before I can even spot the real ones. A lot of more advanced web users think of spam sites, too, like made-for-adsense, as spam.
But to think this is at least the third century!
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