{"id":156,"date":"2026-05-05T16:32:02","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T14:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/journalists\/?p=156"},"modified":"2026-05-22T01:47:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T23:47:44","slug":"the-birth-of-spam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/journalists\/the-birth-of-spam\/","title":{"rendered":"The Birth of Spam"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 3 May 1978, a marketing manager named Gary Thuerk sent what is widely recognized as the first unsolicited bulk email and as a result his message has been flagged as the birth of “spam”.<\/p>\n

THE DETAILS OF THE FIRST SPAM<\/p>\n

The Sender: Gary Thuerk was a marketer for Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). He worked with an engineer, Carl Gartley, who actually sent the message through Thuerk’s account using a program called SENDMSG.<\/p>\n

The Message: It was an advertisement for a product presentation of DEC’s newest computers, specifically the DECSYSTEM-20 family.<\/p>\n

The Recipients: The email was sent to approximately 393 to 400 users on ARPANET, the precursor to the modern internet.<\/p>\n

The Reaction: The response from ARPANET users was almost universally negative, with many considering it a violation of network etiquette. The U.S. Defense Communication Agency even filed a complaint against DEC for the intrusion.<\/p>\n

THE OUTCOME…<\/p>\n

Read Full Article:<\/strong>: https:\/\/fraudalert.co.za\/the-birth-of-spam\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Video:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Contact Alan Straton<\/strong><\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. https:\/\/twitter.com\/MyPE<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/alanstraton\/<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. https:\/\/facebook.com\/MyPEco<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/alanstraton\/<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    ‘Advertise’ Your Article for free:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    CLICK HERE<\/strong><\/a> to drop a link and short description to your published work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    On 3 May 1978, a marketing manager named Gary Thuerk sent what is widely recognized as the first unsolicited bulk email and as a result his message has been flagged as the birth of “spam”. THE DETAILS OF THE FIRST SPAM The Sender: Gary Thuerk was a marketer for Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). He worked …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[15],"class_list":["type-post","category-journalists","tag-fraudalert","entry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/journalists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/journalists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/journalists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/journalists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/journalists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/journalists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":158,"href":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/journalists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156\/revisions\/158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/journalists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/journalists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/journalists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}