Thirty years ago this week, computer maker DEC sent the first spam email to 400 unsuspecting recipients, setting off a phenomenon that would fill countless inboxes and make many on both sides of the legal spectrum millions of dollars.
During the years leading up to its recent milestone, spam transitioned from the early Arpanet network to what we now know as the internet and currently makes up between 80 and 85 percent of all emails sent.
It is also estimated that spam-based scams generated $239 million last year, making up 75 percent of all internet crime.
Although email systems are becoming very adept at blocking unwanted messages, spam is sure to celebrate many more birthdays going forward and will likely transition into any other mass-communication mediums that come up along the way.
One IT Director that we work with said that 5 years ago a good day for him was to block 30,000 unwanted messages from reaching his company’s servers. Now an average day is to block 3.5 million emails a day.
Let me say that I am perhaps the lone proponent of Spam emails and will prove their worth by showing you my new vacation property in Guam, the $100 million in Microsoft stock that Bill Gates just gave me, and my
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