Image by arneheijenga via Flickr
Spam is everywhere on the Internet. It’s on the websites you visit, it ends up in your email, you see it on forums, and it appears on your Facebook walls. It’s so predominant on the Internet that it’s virtually impossible for an internet user to not encounter some type of spam.
Even though it’s so popular, it wasn’t always the case. There once was an Internet that didn’t have spam emails, forum postings and Facebook messages. So how did this spam craze start? Here’s a look at the brief history of how spam messages came to the Internet.
The History of Spam
The first documented encounter with spam messages dates back to 1994 when a team of computer users used a forum to post bulk messages advertising an illegal immigration scam. This scam is known as the Green Card spam, where the team of posters posted advertisements for this service in forums regardless of if it was on topic or not.
The reaction to the spam message was not very receptive. Internet users called out the posters and tried to get the messages to stop. The posters of the messages condemned those that didn’t like the messages and claimed they were just trying to sell services like anyone else.
What Spam has Become Today
Spam messaging has come a long way since those early messages in 1994. A recent survey showed that an average computer user receives at least 20 spam messages a week in their email. Spam has gone on to invade emails, forums, Facebook, text messaging and gaming services.
