Skeptics often fill a vital role in consumer protection. This is particularly true when pseudoscience and quackery are 
advertised directly to unsuspecting members of the general public.
Today this can occur via unsolicited commercial email, or “spam”. Anything from so-called herbal viagra to astrology readings to worthless diploma-mill degrees are commonly marketed this way.
Of course, “spam” messages are well known to anyone with an email address now, but when did they start? Online histories often mark the beginning of spam as May 3, 1978, when an ad for a new model of computer was sent to 393 people via ARPAnet, a precursor to the internet.
Since then just about every messaging system invented has attracted some form of unsolicited spam. Some are not just advertising messages, but chain letters or scams. One infamous one from the 1980s called Make Money Fast was basically a type of pyramid scheme that encouraged recipients to forward the message to others.
But believe it or not, unsolicited electronic messages actually long predate email. By more than a century, in fact!
In the 1860s the London District Telegraph Company began offering an innovative new service of “Trade Circulars by Telegraph” for commercial clients. As was the custom with telegraph messages of the time, the commercial message would be sent electronically to a local office where it would be printed out and then delivered by hand.
On May 29, 1864 two dentists (Maurice and Arnold Gabriel) sent out a set of such messages to possible patients in their area listing their address and hours. This unusual use of the new medium caused a bit of a public uproar, as the recipients were shocked to receive a knock at their door to deliver a commercial message.
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(This is adapted from a segment that originally appeared on the Skepticality podcast episode #155)
Tim Farley is a Research Fellow for JREF