SPAM
THE WILD FRONTIER
A NATURE DOCUMENTARY PRESENTATION
Produced in association with the Internet Wildlife Fund • 1997
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NARRATED BY |
FIELD RESEARCHER |
1. THE HABITAT
Deep within the primordial forests of the ARPANET, a new creature stirs. The first wave of unsolicited commercial email has emerged from the primordial ooze of Usenet newsgroups and mailing lists. These digital organisms thrive in the warm, damp conditions of 2400-baud modems and 14.4k connections.
> telnet mailhost 25 220 mailhost.1997.edu ready HELO researcher.net 250 Hello MAIL FROM: <spam@bulk.biz> RCPT TO: <everybody@listserv>
2. MIGRATION PATTERNS
Watch as the first specimens leave the safety of their origin servers. They multiply rapidly once they reach the fertile plains of AOL and CompuServe. Each message carries within it the genetic code of its creator: MAKE MONEY FAST, HOT STOCK TIPS, and the mysterious "Nigerian Prince" lineage.
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Species A Subject: FREE $$$ 
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Species B Subject: Work at Home 
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Species C Subject: Adult Content |
3. BEHAVIORAL OBSERVATIONS
The spam exhibits remarkable survival traits. It ignores all known filters and reproduces by simple replication. Researchers have noted the distinctive "click here" display call, used to lure unsuspecting prey into opening the message body.
Subject: You have won!
From: winner@lottery-1997.com
Body: Click here to claim your prize!
[link to 1x1.gif tracking pixel]
By 1997 the population has exploded beyond containment. The creatures now outnumber legitimate correspondence by a ratio of 3:1 on some university mail servers.
4. FIELD LOG • 12 MARCH 1997
Today we observed the largest single migration event yet recorded. Over 47,000 identical messages traversed the backbone between 02:14 and 02:17 UTC. The subject line read simply "!!!".
© 1997 Internet Wildlife Fund • All rights reserved
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