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On Spam's Birthday, Three Cheers for 'Delete'
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Microsoft founder Bill Gates predicted in 2004 that spam would be defeated by now. Gates said he thought a system would be put in place under which senders of unwanted e-mails could be charged a fee, a move that would make spam commercially unviable.
This year marks another significant anniversary milestone for spammers: Viagra, one of the most popular products for spam pitches, hit the market in March 1998. The first spam messages offering the drug for sale hit e-mail inboxes shortly afterward.
In June that year, one of the first Viagra spam e-mails offered a bottle of 30 pills for $500. In an e-mail, the company, identified as "America YA Gifts Inc." listed an address and phone number in San Francisco. A woman who picked up the phone at the number this week said the number belongs to a "staffing firm."
Thuerk, that former computer salesman, does not appear to have a listed phone number and could not be reached for comment.
For the record, Spam, the canned meat product from which unsolicited commercial e-mails take their name, turned 70 last year.
Staff researcher Richard Drezen contributed to this report.
