The First Spam Email: How One Message Changed the Internet Forever

Let’s rewind to a time before the internet had memes, influencers, or even Google. Picture this: it’s 1978, and computers are the size of refrigerators. There is no Gmail, no Wi-Fi, and certainly no inbox jammed with offers of miracle skin serums or investment “opportunities.”  In fact, there’s barely an inbox at all. Yet somehow, this is when the first-ever spam email was born—and it came not from a hacker or shady corner of the web, but from a marketing guy who just wanted to show off his company’s latest computer.

One Bold Email That Shaped Internet History

Against this quietly buzzing world of early tech, a marketing executive named Gary Thuerk had a radical notion. He worked at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), which had just introduced a new computer system that he was excited to share.

Instead of sending snail-mail invitations or placing hundreds of personal calls, Thuerk found an opportunity. ARPANET, the predecessor to the modern internet, connected a few hundred users across the country — scientists, engineers, and computer geeks. Rather than mailing endless paper invitations or calling hundreds of people, he decided to try something different — sent the same message to nearly 400 users at a time.

It was a simple act. One email. One bold move. But it would end up making internet history.

The First Internet Outrage

The recipients weren’t exactly impressed. In fact, they were furious. At that time, Email was a privilege reserved for cooperation and serious communication. This unsolicited advertisement was looked at as an intrusion. Readers lashed out, sending scolding replies and complaining to administrators. It was the first time the internet had been subjected to a breach of digital boundaries, and it would not be the last.

Spam Worked—And That Was the Problem

Now, here’s where it gets interesting: while the backlash was loud, the results were louder. Thuerk’s mass email actually worked. It generated several million dollars in sales. 

That one act of rebellion, the digital equivalent of junk mail, served to show that even a simple, text-only message would lead to results. And so, spam was born. Not out of malice or mischief, but out of pure, old-fashioned marketing hustle. 

Why Is It Called “Spam” Anyway?

At first, it seems like a strange word for junk email. Believe it or not, the name is actually a product of canned meat — and a dose of British humor.

There’s an old sketch by the comedy group Monty Python, in which a café’s menu consists of nothing but dishes featuring Spam (the meat). While customers try to place orders, a gang of Vikings in the background continues chanting “Spam! Spam! Spam!” louder and louder, until no one can talk or think.

Internet users picked up on this idea. Just like the chant, spam emails are loud, repetitive, and drown out the useful stuff in your inbox. So the name stuck—and now, it’s hard to imagine calling it anything else.

The Spam Arms Race Begins

As the internet exploded in the 90s and 2000s, so did spam. Spam evolved from simply annoying advertisements to scammy, and occasionally dangerous, messages — fake lottery winnings, questionable pharmaceuticals, phishing links, malware traps. It was a digital arms race. Internet mail providers rushed to develop more sophisticated filters; spammers grew more cunning, switching in misspellings, weird punctuation, and even, sometimes, randomly inserted Shakespeare quotes in attempts to bypass filters.

Half Your Inbox Is Spam — Here’s Why That’s Profitable

Today, spam accounts for almost half of all emails sent worldwide. Yes, half. But before it could grow into this, it started with a single message from a single man who wanted more people to show up to his demo.

Spam emails now account for almost half of all email traffic worldwide – and incredibly, the industry is extremely profitable. Billions of dollars are earned each year from spam: the fake pharmaceuticals industry is particularly lucrative, as are get-rich-quick schemes and dodgy affiliate marketing. While the vast majority of us delete without reading, enough individuals do enough to ensure that the industry is successful. 

However, many technology companies have implemented more intelligent filters than ever before, some utilizing AI and machine learning technology to filter out harmful messages. But spammers are ingenious, and as always, they are likely to find ways through. But isn’t it amusing how some of the things that irritate us the most about the internet sometimes originate from the most innocent intentions?

So the next time you sigh and delete ten unread messages offering “guaranteed wealth” or “miracle skin serums,” take a moment to remember Gary Thuerk. He didn’t invent the spam the world knows, but he inadvertently unleashed Pandora’s inbox. His curiosity and creativity unleashed something that no one could control, including himself.

The origins of the first spam email aren’t simply a fun tech trivia fact. It’s a potent reminder of how every innovation — good or bad — begins with a single, audacious idea. Occasionally, that notion flouts the rules. Sometimes, it piles up in your inbox. But every now and then … it changes the world.