1937
The original term Spam was coined in 1937 by the Hormel corporation as a name for its potted meat product: a blend of spiced ham.
From there, the transition from meat product to internet term has a stop with Monty Python's Flying Circus.
In 1970, that BBC comedy show aired a sketch that featured a cafe that had a menu that featured items like "egg, bacon, and spam;" "egg, bacon, sausage, and spam;" " spam, bacon, sausage, and spam;" "spam, egg, spam, spam, bacon, and spam;" and finally "lobster thermidor aux crevettes with a mornay sauce garnished with truffle pate, brandy, and a fried egg on top and spam." To make matters sillier, the cafe was filled with Vikings who periodically break out into song praising Spam: "Spam, spam, spam, spam ... lovely spam, wonderful spam ..."
Computer people adopted the term from the Python sketch to mean overrunning a fixed-sized buffer with too much data, in other words the data was like the Spam in the sketch, something excessive and undesirable.
With the commercialization of the Internet, the term Spam expanded to include the unwanted commercial messages and that became the primary meaning.
There are two common alternative explanations that are certainly false.
The first is that it refers to a quality of the meat product such that when you throw it at a wall, most of it bounces off, but a little sticks--much like commercial spam, most of which is deleted but some is answered. While this is no more silly than the Monty Python explanation, it does not jibe with the original computer sense of overloading a buffer.
The second false explanation is that the computer spam is an acronym of some sort. Various phrases are suggested as the source, such as "stupid pointless annoying mail." All are obviously created after the fact.
1978
The first commercial spam sent intentionally was that of a DEC representative to every Arpanet address on the west coast, or at least an attempt at that.
The sender is identified as Gary Thuerk, an aggressive DEC marketer who thought Arpanet users would find it cool that DEC had integrated Arpanet protocol support directly into the new DEC-20 and TOPS-20 OS.
1982
February, Earliest known email chain letter (quickly stamped out)
1989
Some other form of Spam probably began around 1989 or 1990 in MUD's (multi-user interactive environments) this is to refer to flooding the MUD, its chat or its database with stuff.
1991
February, mass message: Craig Shergold wants cards
1993
March 31 - Usenet administrator Richard Depew inadvertently posted the same message 200 times to a discussion group. this one was coined spam by Joel Furr, a Mudder. Adopting a term previously used in online text games, outraged Usenet users branded the excessive message posting "spam".
First Giant Spam
The first major USENET spam came on January 18 of 1994. Every single newsgroup found it it a religious screed declaring: Global Alert for All: Jesus is Coming Soon.
This one caused a ton of debate and controversy. The Andrews University sysadmin (Clarence Thomas) who sent it generated a flurry of complaints against his institution and some press, though reportedly he never got more than a mild punishment at the time. He did however eventually leave the University, but was also known to have done some more minor religious spams at later dates.
1994
March 4 - Many companies are starting to use the net as a cheap way to advertise. Other companies are using the net to keep in touch with their clients and give support via the internet. Every year the Internet doubles in usage and users. Not all countries do have access to the net.
The Net approaches more or less the Super Information Highway as was meant by Vice President Al Gore and his advisors.
A well publicized case of net pollution, later this use of the internet will be called SPAM, is the case "Canter and Siegel", a law firm in the USA which used the net to advertise practically to all users of all active BBS's of the net. In their advertisement they tried to obtain customers for the application of a Green Card" (a permit for foreigners to stay in the USA). The reaction varied from flames to uncalled subscriptions on tens of magazines, meters of blank faxes and a program of a Norwegian programmer who developed the mechanism of Cancelbot. Cancelbot is a program which erases all e-mail of this firm on any computer before it can reach the user.
CancelMoose: An individual who wages a war against spam ming Anonymous individual who fires off the cancelbot. The CancelMoose (usually written as 'CancelMoose [TM]' on the Net) monitors newsgroups such as alt.current-events.net-abuse and news.admin.net-abuse for complaints about spamming (advertising), usually defined as messages posted to more than 25 newsgroups of widely varying content. The CancelMoose's identity is kept secret for reasons of personal safety.
December, The "good times" email virus hoax.
1995
June,"spamware" (spamming software)
August, List of 2 million email addresses offered for sale
October, abuse@ addresses
November,"remove list" (the first (?) of many that were intended to be universal)
1996
March, Spamblocks (e.g. REMOVE.TO.REPLY) added to addressees to foil spammers
1997
March,"open relay", servers that can be used to send millions of mail anonymously, mostly the admin's of these servers are not aware of this misuse.
1998
April, ISOC (Internet Society) meeting on spam. Organizations like ISOC are beginning to realize how serious a problem spam is becoming.
2000
Nigerian scam spam started around this year. People received an e-mail containing text that promised you to make a quick million just by borrowing your checking account for transferring funds. Even the Nigerian government, annoyed as they were with this very negative publicity, started to check on the originators, opening a special e-mail address, created pages on their embassy sites, and tried to capture them.
In some cases people were even invited to Nigeria by the scammer's gang and got ransacked of every penney they had. Often these criminals left their victims half naked on the street after they had finished their scam. If they were lucky. One of the worst cases registered so far in scamming. Even Time magazine mentioned this Nigerian connection.
November, Taiwan (.tw) becomes the spam capital of the world.
2002
The European Union outlaws spam. But the legeslation is easy to evade so that this ruling has almost no effect.
2003
At least 2 billion spam messages are sent each day.
After a long and fruitless fight against the use of the word SPAM other than for their meat product Hormel came out with a declaration on July 14 and throws the towel in the ring. Therewith finalizing the Don Quixote like fight.
Below follows an extract on their defense as it is displayed on their site:
SPAM and the Internet
You've probably seen, heard or even used the term "spamming" to refer to the act of sending unsolicited commercial email (UCE), or "spam" to refer to the UCE itself. Following is our position on the relationship between UCE and our trademark SPAM.
Use of the term "spam" was adopted as a result of the Monty Python skit in which our SPAM meat product was featured. In this skit, a group of Vikings sang a chorus of "spam, spam, spam . . . " in an increasing crescendo, drowning out other conversation. Hence, the analogy applied because UCE was drowning out normal discourse on the Internet.
We do not object to use of this slang term to describe UCE, although we do object to the use of the word "spam" as a trademark and to the use of our product image in association with that term. Also, if the term is to be used, it should be used in all lower-case letters to distinguish it from our trademark SPAM, which should be used with all uppercase letters.
This slang term, which generically describes UCE, does not affect the strength of our trademark SPAM. In a Federal District Court case involving the famous trademark STAR WARS owned by LucasFilms, the Court ruled that the slang term used to refer to the Strategic Defense Initiative did not weaken the trademark and the Court refused to stop its use as a slang term. Other examples of famous trademarks having a different slang meaning include MICKEY MOUSE, to describe something as unsophisticated and CADILLAC, used to denote something as being high quality. It is only when someone attempts to trademark the word "spam" that we object to such use, in order to protect our rights in our famous trademark SPAM. We coined this term in 1937 and it has become a famous trademark. Thus, we don't appreciate it when someone else tries to make money on the goodwill that we created in our trademark or product image, or takes away from the unique and distinctive nature of our famous trademark SPAM. Let's face it. Today's teens and young adults are more computer savvy than ever, and the next generations will be even more so. Children will be exposed to the slang term "spam" to describe UCE well before being exposed to our famous product SPAM. Ultimately, we are trying to avoid the day when the consuming public asks, "Why would Hormel Foods name its product after junk e-mail?"
Position Statement on "Spamming"
We oppose the act of "spamming" or sending UCE. We have never engaged in this practice, although we have been victimized by it. If you have been one of those who has received UCE with a return address using our web site address of SPAM.com, it wasn't us. It's easy and commonplace for somebody sending UCE to simply adopt a fake header ID, which disguises the true source of the UCE and makes it appear that it is coming from someone else. If you have or do receive UCE with this header ID, please understand that it didn't come from us.
And of course Hormel is right. Their product is not, can not possibly be the same, as what we refer to as spam that is spread over the internet like a pestilence. "Spam is threatening the very existence of the internet as we know it today..." write some columnists. Future will show if they are right.
2004
Definitely 35% of all e-mail consists of Spam
The CAN-SPAM Act goes into effect on Jan. 1. While the law does not prohibit unsolicited commercial email, it does require that unsolicited commercial email senders: - Ensure that the “FROM” line clearly reflects the sender’s identity - Include subject line text consistent with message content - Include the advertiser’s valid postal address - Contain a working opt-out mechanism as a way for the consumer to decline to receive further commercial email from the sender
Hypertouch, a California-based ISP, files the first civil lawsuit under CAN-SPAM against the owner of BobVila.com.
On March 20, America Online, EarthLink, Microsoft and Yahoo! all file the first ISP lawsuits under the CAN-SPAM legislation.
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) creates a working group to examine Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) authentication, including examination of proposals for the domain name system (DNS) publication of data that allow validation of Internet Protocol (IP) address or envelope originator header data for SMTP MTAs.
March 28, A new form of spam gains momentum: Add Spam, or instant-messenger spam, is appearing on computer screens with increasing frequency. And the problem may get worse as e-mail marketers look for new ways to reach consumers as most governments start to prepare anti-spam laws.
This form of pollution manifests itself primarily for users of MSN. According to Radicati, a marketing research company, the number of spam messages rise from 400 million to 1,2 billion. The same source states that this is because of the increase of use in IM (instant messaging - a from of chatting.
In the first quarter of this year Spam is finally declared illegal by some governments and laws come into effect. Some are forbidding Spam completely (China) others let commercial interest prevail above the poisoning of the internet (USA, Holland) and any variation in between. Anti Spam movements are not happy to say the least. But the day that Spam was declared illegal in the USA the amount of spam dropped dramatically. For a few days.
Michigan conducts the first criminal prosecution under the CAN-SPAM Act, issuing arrest warrants for four men charged with sending out hundreds of thousands of fraudulent, unsolicited commercial email messages advertising a weight-loss product.
As if the flow of spam isn't problematic enough, here comes another wave. Spammers Get Ready For April Fool's Day Barracuda Networks, a maker of spam fire walls, says E-mail users should prepare for a spike in spam activity leading up to April Fool's Day. Spammers are expected to use subject lines such as "great joke," "free jokes," "prank," or "April fools" to entice users into opening attachments that carry viruses or objectionable content, potentially putting company networks at risk. Spammers increasingly have used holidays such as Christmas or Valentine's Day to take advantage of consumers looking to get good deals on holiday-related purchases. But in the absence of a commercial hook for April Fool's Day, they're likely to use the appeal of jokes to deliver malicious content. Barracuda warns that bogus April Fool's messages may come in large-enough quantities to flood company networks that don't have up-to-date spam and virus filters.
Just another wave of panic caused by the commercial guys that was uncalled for. The wave did not materialize.
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issues a ruling requiring all unsolicited email with sexually oriented content to bear the label “SEXUALLY-EXPLICIT:” in the subject line.
Only one in six emails complies with the FTC “SEXUALLY-EXPLICIT” label.
FTC issues “National Do Not Email Registry: A Report to Congress” on the feasibility of creating a Do Not Email registry. Among the report’s conclusions are that a registry would be nearly impossible to implement today and could create a target for spammers. The report calls for a summit on email authentication.
In June the UN organization International Telecommunications Union (ITU) let us believe that Spam can be controlled within 2 years IF governments and other authorities and software companies cooperate in legislation en anti spam software to tame the spamming. Millions op people will shy away from the internet when this does not happen so the ITU states. ITU has estimated the costs worldwide of spam on 25 billion dollar per year. But it is estimated that the actual costs of cleaning spam: rebooting computers and peripherals, productivity loss etcetera, is costing the community four times as much. But, the ITU states, it will only succeed when all concerned work together.
(editors comment: In that case two years is very optimistic I have not seen any government make a decision so fast. Let alone that software companies and governments will start working together where there has been such an alienation between the two sections the past decades. Now, if it comes, it does from the (international) Open Source community. Since they are generally so fed up with spam there must be a group effort underway)
June - That something can be done against excessive spam is proven by Australia. A stringent law is now effective. Banning all mail for pornography, adds for erection pills etc. that are taking care for over 75% of all email world wide. Companies that send spam are fined for 1.1 million Australian Dollars (670,000 EUR /820,000 USD) each day they continue to do so. And in Australia this is taking effect, almost all spam has disappeared. Unwanted e-mail is costing companies billions a year now.
MX Logic reports that CAN-SPAM compliance reaches a low of 0.54 percent, while 84 percent of all email traffic through the MX Logic Threat Center is spam.
As part of Operation Web Snare, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Los Angeles announces it filed charges against Nicholas Tombros for sending unsolicited email advertising pornographic Web sites from his laptop computer while driving through Venice, Calif., and using unsecured wireless access points to disseminate spam.
Nicholas Tombros, the “wireless spammer,” becomes the first person convicted under the CAN-SPAM Act.
October - Judge Orders Spam King To disable spyware programs
A federal judge has ordered Stanford Wallace, known as the Spam King, to disable so-called spyware programs that infiltrate people's computers, track their Internet use and flood them with pop-up advertising. United States District Judge Joseph DiClerico issued a temporary restraining order Thursday against Stanford Wallace and his companies, SmartBot.net Inc. of Richboro, Pa., and Seismic Entertainment Productions Inc. of Rochester. SmartBot's principal place of business is Barrington. Prosecutors sought the injunction on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission, which targeted Wallace in its first anti-spyware action.
Jeremy Jaynes, considered one of the top 10 spammers in the world, is sentenced to nine years in prison under Virginia’s anti-spam law for sending millions of spam messages to America Online customers.
A Maryland (USA) judge overturns the state’s anti-spam law (2002 Commercial Electronic Mail Act), ruling that it interferes with interstate commerce.
In the largest judgment against a spammer to date, a federal judge in Iowa orders three companies to pay an ISP $1 billion in damages.
The US one year old CAN-SPAM laws intended to curb Spam have had very little impact; thus stated by an anti Spam software company MX Logic. This company estimates that 77% of all e-mail is Spam while CAN-SPAM compliance hits an all-time high of 7 percent.
Feedback by users of America Online show that 2003's favorite subject Oprah Winfrey, teens and Viagra, were overtaken this year by ID theft scams, mortgage deals and substitutes for a withdrawn anti arthritis painkiller called Vioxx.
2005
1 Jan - Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger legislated a new law against spyware effective per 1 Jan 2005. Though the USA Congress debated on four law proposals California is them one step ahead.
The Consumer Protection Against Spyware Act forbids installation of software that (partly) takes over control of your computer. Companies (and web sites) exploiting such software are now ordered to publish the fact if their software installs spyware. Citizens that are affected with spyware on their computer can now claim a 1000 US Dollar damage from the company that installed the spyware. Though receiving the money will be difficult however the companies are known the owners or people behind it stay in the murk. And the wording of this act is such that it will be hard to prosecute the perpetrator.
Spam is changing its features once again. From complete and often well designed html pages via your mail or pop-ups spammers are now changing their messages to short email texts (again) in order to evade spam detecting software. Or at least they hope to have spread the message millions of times before a spam filter can be adapted.
12 May - Judge Tom Reilly in Massachusetts, USA has ordered several sites to go off-line. The sites were connected to a gang of spammers. Seven suspects and 2 companies are charged with spamming, main suspect is Leo Kuvayev, and 2K Services en Ecash Pay. The spammers were rounded up with help from Microsoft by creating some hundred thousand Hotmail accounts. Within 3 weeks 45.000 spam mails were received that were allegedly originating from the spam gang.
August, Spam still rules the waves. Here is an illustration from Sophos, an antispam software manufacturer, reporting on the first half of 2005.
August, a new trend in cloaking spam surfaces.
Do you remember those funny programs that generated random text as were it prose? Most of it was gibberish, some output had something. Well, spammers seem to have rediscovered this text generation tools to cloak their spam. Though most are nonsensical some are even readable and others even read like a spy message!
Here are some readings, enjoy:
"Got engine safe planet, language large. Always young, early. Done common final has time. Answer list break once warm whether. By, fish river, half, farm. String, made strange rail. Way nation has mouth five she was. Hour able, ready. If children, one moon. Season grass, shine shape, young arm, just. Dog in, divide sound quiet little off. Select, see decide there. Able grass, group set seem fruit. Break so, was, try head."
"Went real, flow. Both carry control book, to, certain floor. Map sound just die train once. Box now dance. Class start part short, from, wash. Stone moment, colony, mark problem ride, let. Born at our suit other. Though answer wall. Took oil engine room. Felt, friend time was. Letter, bright figure. Need gun point life, gave century too. Stop jump sleep village where card. Wire country money here fire locate. Joy twenty man, play save, subtract example."
"Oh, did you buy the hotel; you promised a million … sure. Get out! I wish I knew. Please make it quick; fast and furious; please … fast and furious. Please help me get out; I'm getting my wind back, thank God! Please, please; Oh, please. You will have to, please … tell him, 'You got no case.' You get ahead with the dot and dash system. Didn't I speak that time last night. Whose number is that in your pocketbook, Phil? 13780. Who was it? Oh! … Please, please … Reserve decision, police, police; Henny and Frankie … Oh, Oh, dog Biscuit, and when he is happy he doesn't get snappy … Please, please do this! Henny, Henny, Frankie! You didn't meet him; you didn't even meet me; the glove will fit what I say … Oh, kayiyi, kayiyi! Sure, who cares? When are you through! How do you know this? Well, then … Oh, Cocoa; no … thinks he is a grandpa again and he is jumping around. No, Hoboe and Poboe I think I mean the same thing….
"Police, Mamma! Helen, mother, please take me out. Come on, Rosie. O.K. Hymes would not do it; not him. I will settle … the indictment. Come on, Max, open the soap duckets. Frankie, please come here. Open that door, Dumpey's door. It is so much, Abe, that … with the brewery. come on. Hey, Jimmie! The Chimney Sweeps. Talk to the Sword. Shut up, you got a big mouth! please come help me up, Henny. Max come over here … French Canadian bean soup … I want to pay, let them leave me alone."
And they are just trying to sell pills, drugs and loans or other items!
2006
Though the European Union outlawed spam 2002, most EU-countries do little to fight this nuisance says Reding. „I will review the subject next year to see if additional legislation is needed against Spam". According to internet security advisors spam has increased since last year from 54 to 85 percent from all email. In 2001 it was just 7 percent. While most internetters just see spam as a nuisance, Brussels thinks Spam originates increasingly from criminals. The latter's install unsolicited software on your computer to extort personal or secret information.
The EU asks internet companies to install more filters against Spam. At the same time Brussels officials engage in tougher discussions with countries where this Spam seem tot originate from.
Most spam (21 percent) originates form the USA, research from IT- security firm Sophos points out, (July - Sept.) China is second best with 13 percent, followed by France and South Korea with over 6%.
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