Sixteen years ago today, the first spam email message was sent out to 100,000 Usenet accounts by immigration lawyers Laurence Canter and Martha Siegel, offering their services:
Link | Photo: US Department of Justice
Canter and Siegel went on to notoriety, claiming they’d made $100,000 from their Perl-script spamming. The two remained unrepentant, despite the backlash which led them to lose their hosting and even get Canter disbarred. [...]
Depending on who is counting, spam now accounts for nearly 90 percent of e-mail traffic — much of it sent through botnets or unscrupulous hosting companies and e-mail firms.
Link | Photo: US Department of Justice
1. The C&S spam wasn't email. USENET is a discussion forum, not email. Yes, I was there; I am old.
2. It was predated by Gary Thuerk's famous May 3, 1978 mass commercial email. No, I wasn't there; I'm not *that* old!