Spam celebrated its 30th anniversary on Saturday (May 3rd).
The first reported mass email was sent to 350 people on May 3rd 1978 by Gary Thuerk to advertise a new system his company was pioneering. Even then, users greeted the email with criticism and distrust.
Today, it is estimated that 120 billion junk emails are sent every day, often resulting in internet users’ inboxes quickly filling up.
Spam was originally referred to as flooding, until an administrator of an internet chat system bestowed it with its new nickname. The term spam is thought to refer to the Monty Python sketch where a waiter reveals there is little on the menu but the processed and canned meat.
The European Union’s internal marketing commission estimated in 2001 that spam cost internet users 10 billion (approximately £7.87 billion) a year globally.
However, spam is not just annoying but could also install malware or result in financial data being stolen, Gary Cluley, a senior technology consultant, at Sophos told the BBC.
‘Spam is a burden on all of us’ he said.
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