We Interview the World’s First Spammer

Posted by Ben Worthen

Gary Thuerk is the man most-widely credited as the father of spam, the unsolicited emails that now account for an estimated 90% of electronic messages sent.

Gary Thuerk loves spam

Thirty-years ago this Saturday, Thuerk sent what’s believed to be the first such message — an invitation to an open house for a new computer — to around 400 of the 2600 or so people who had email accounts at the time. (We’ve included a copy of this first spam message below.) His reason for the mass email was no different from those of the Viagra pushers and Nigerian princes who send these messages today: It was cheaper than mailing hundreds of paper letters and faster than placing phone calls.

From a marketing standpoint, the email was a success: About 20 people came to each of Thuerk’s open houses, and he estimates it led to more than $12 million in sales. But the email also earned Thuerk instant notoriety. “People started complaining immediately,” he tells the Business Technology Blog. Someone from the Rand Corporation sent him a letter telling him he broke the rules of the ARPANET, the Internet’s predecessor. (There was an unwritten rule that people wouldn’t use the ARPANET to sell things; Thuerk tells us he only promoted a product.) A major from the defense communications agency called Thuerk’s boss and made him promise that Thuerk would never send an email like that again.

Thuerk has embraced his place in history as the father of spam. It’s landed him in the Guinness Book of World Records, and he does promotional work for anti-spam companies from time to time. He says people have one of three reactions when they meet him: Some are excited to meet someone with an unusual claim to fame; some want to beat him up on the spot; and others just avoid him like the plague.

For what it’s worth, Thuerk doesn’t think people should blame him for the current spam deluge. “If the airline loses your luggage do you blame the Wright brothers?” he asks.

Of course, Thuerk may not truly know the pain that comes from flipping through hundreds of “get large” or “cheap Rolex” emails because he never receives Spam. After his inbox was flooded with unsolicited messages, he switched his email account and stopped filling out forms online. “Now I just give my phone number,” he says.

Image: Gary Thuerk

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