On May 1st, 1978, Gary Thuerk sent out the first spam email.
Thuerk was a marketing manager at Digital Equipment Corp., who sent the first unsolicited mass email to roughly 400 customers on the Arpanet, predecessor to the Internet.
The enterprising marketing guru was hoping to get attention for DEC’s new VAX super computers.
And that was the moment that spam was born, 40 years ago!
While not many recipients of the email complained, the Arpanet operators issued a stern warning, ending Thuerk’s marketing efforts; he claims that the mass email resulted in $3 million dollars worth of sales.
Who says spam can’t be effective? 😀
Computer spam – Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash
