The origin stories of SPAM

On the day I decided to write about this topic, I had a message in one of my instant messaging platforms. One look at it, and it was obviously a spam message coming from a business unit trying to plug their products. It wasn’t the first time I was getting that message, nor will it be the last time — despite the fact that I never signed up for it in the first place and irrespective of how many more times I mark their messages as spam. 

Often containing information that would be classified as promotional or advertising, spam corresponds to the large number of undesired messages that is flooding the internet. While the methodology or means by which it is done predates the internet (think of those single-page paper advertisements or pamphlets that are surreptitiously included in your newspaper or magazines, for instance), spam messages online have become all-pervasive. With these messages now also containing phishing content, links and attachments that spread malware, and cyber scams to trap the gullible, the harm created by them has increased manifold. It all started with certain individuals trying to push their own commercial interests.