I BEGAN SENDING SPAM

I am, in fact, the one who came up with the idea of spam. It had been more than four decades since I was a young superstar salesperson in California, selling construction and mining equipment. I was in the middle of my career. When we were traveling salespeople in the past, one of the things that we did was give around pages of jokes to our various customers. My name and phone number would be placed smack dab in the center, surrounded by jokes for the most part. Some of the sites had lists of vulgar jokes, while others were more appropriate for children. As a result of the fact that the idea of “political correctness” had not yet been developed, some of them were quite crude. On the other hand, my customers adored them, and they were sent to a lot of people, along with a little sales blurb and my contact information. It was a referral and lead generating system that was low-tech, but it was successful in producing results. But then, one day, our workplace was presented with a brand new piece of technology: a fax machine. It was the first time we had ever seen something like it, and we were eager to play with it. But just a small number of businesses had one at the time. The excitement began each time a new client installed one of them. When I would give them a list of jokes, they would send me a job application at McDonald’s. I would do the same thing. Instantaneously, it became out of control. The question “whose buttocks are these?” garnered a lot of attention. The spam moved from sending jokes to sending advertisements for toner and paper, as well as announcements from Nigerian princes, as the use of fax machines increased at a rapid pace. Every time you received a fax, it printed out on expensive thermal paper, which led to an increase in the cost of the service. On the other hand, if you possessed the more modern equipment, they used toner and paper. Getting a fax really cost money, and the managers were not pleased with the amount of spam that was received. When personal computers were introduced, they were immediately followed by e-mail, which was then rapidly followed by spam in e-mail. The first thing I did was start delivering my funny lists via e-mail. Everyone at first believed that it was a pleasant activity. The spam became more annoying as computers became more advanced in their technology. Now, it seems that no one is able to put a stop to it. Following my retirement from the commercial sector, I launched an internet company that may be found at faxtopia.com. Our company offers fax and email services. The fax spam has, luckily, dissipated to a large extent. If only the spam that comes in my email would go as well. It’s all my fault, therefore I apologize to everyone. It was one of the most effective marketing tools available at the time.