From: pvdl@best.com (Peter van der Linden) Subject: Re: first case of spam?? Date: 18 Aug 2000 00:00:00 GMT Message-ID: <8njlt7$2ig6$1@nntp1.ba.best.com> References: X-Complaints-To: abuse@best.com X-Trace: nntp1.ba.best.com 966613735 84486 206.184.139.147 (18 Aug 2000 15:48:55 GMT) Organization: a NNTP-Posting-Date: 18 Aug 2000 15:48:55 GMT Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers The very first widespread piece of spam on the net was from an enterprising gentleman known as "JJ" posting from cup.portal.com. It was on May 10 1988 that JJ posted in every newsgroup that was (then) part of Usenet. The subject was "HELP ME!!!". The host was an early ISP, (a portal site, or gateway onto the Internet), situated in Cupertino ("cup"), California. This historic posting was the very first great Internet scam. JJ claimed to be a college student who needed money for his senior year, and asked for just one dollar from everyone. He claimed he and his parents were all tapped out of scholarships etc, and that he already had a part time job. People weren't used to scams on the Net back then, and a lot of them took the little weasel at face value. Some provided good advice on how to get by without begging. I'm sure a few sent money. After "JJ" was booted out of Portal, he soon showed up at another public access Unix site and repeated the begging scam. Soon, a netizen uncovered his true name and telephone number and posted it to the net. A new posting then appeared from JJ which said: (this is from memory) "Please stop calling me "collect" at 3 in the morning! Also please stop sending me letters with postage due! I really need this money! I'm an orphan!" Oh, did the flood gates open then! JJ the orphan, who's the sole support of his parents. Later scams like the Canter and Seigal spam, in which two lawyers sent junk mail to every newsgroup offering help obtaining a green card, pale by comparison. The "help" the lawyers would give consisted of sending along forms that were available free from the government. They charged a huge amount for it. ---- If anyone has the original JJ post from 12 years ago, or the Canter/Seigal scam, (BTW, one of those two lawyers had earlier been subject to disciplinary action from the Bar), could they post it here?