Gary Thuerk, a marketing representative for DEC, sent out an email promoting an open house for the company's latest computer systems on May 3rd, 1978. The email was sent out to 393 recipients, and while this number sounds small, it was all the users of ARPNET on the west coast. It became the first spam message, although the term "spam" was coined later, and immediately drew a negative reaction from recipients who believed that it was not an acceptable use of computers. Even with the controversy, the open house was largely successful, with DEC selling $12 million in products.
