Most of us think of “spam” as a relatively new concept, but the idea actually predates email by a good one hundred years or so. The first known instance of a mass unsolicited commercial message was in May 1864, when Messrs Gabriel advertised via mass telegram messages that their dental practice would be open from 10am to 5pm until October. In fact, up until the Great Depression, it was common for wealthy folks to be inundated with telegraphs regarding questionable investment opportunities.
TME Magazine – Early Telex Example
Even so, a number of corporations were caught completely off guard in March 1949, when they began receiving unsolicited marketing messages from Pryor and Co. Office Supply in Milford, Pennsylvania:
GREETINGS. PLS ONPASS FOLLOWING MSG TO OFC MGR.
CALL PRYOR & CO OFC SUPPLY PE.6-6410 FOR PAPER GOODS – PEN – INK – RUBBER STAMPS. FREE CATALOG. FREE SHIPPING AVLB. STOP THROWING MONEY AWAY.
ENDS+
The messages continued to arrive sporadically over the next few months. Most regarded the ads as a minor nuisance, but for some, the messages represented a breach in security. The telex lines were meant to be secure, and the numbers to access them were supposed to be a closely-guarded secret.
In July 1949, TMX Magazine (an AT&T trade magazine named for the TeletypeWriter eMergent service) published an article about the incident, claiming the unsolicited messages were being distributed to as many as five corporations. The following month, they amended their story and said the number of folks on the distribution list might be as high as 30.
AT&T investigated the incident, and determined that the messages were originating from a telex machine at the law firm of Brindle & Taylor (also located in Milford). Roger Clarke, an employee of the law firm, admitted to sending the messages on behalf of his brother-in-law, one of the proprietors of Pryor and Co. AT&T contacted the service provider, who threatened to remove Brindle & Taylor’s telex access if the messages didn’t stop. TWX Magazine later published an article about the incident to reassure clients that they were aware of the annoyance and to implicitly demonstrate that it was an undesirable practice which could result in revocation of telex service.
To this day, nobody knows for sure how Clarke came by the telex numbers that he used for his proto-spam. Clarke told AT&T that he had simply called a number of service providers and asked for them on behalf of his law firm. However, AT&T claimed that was unlikely, and insisted he probably culled the numbers from numerous legal documents.
Although no charges were filed against Clarke, he did lose his job at the law firm. Pryor & Co. hobbled along for another three years before eventually filing for bankruptcy in 1952. And AT&T (along with many other telex service providers) put some best practices in place to tighten up security on the phone numbers.