, AOL Consider Fee For Some E-Mail

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, AOL Consider Fee For Some E-Mail POSTED: 7:59 am CST February 6, 2006 SAN FRANCISCO -- Two of the biggest e-mail account providers are betting that legitimate businesses would be willing to pay to give them access to people -- without having to go through spam filters. and America Online said they plan to introduce a service that would charge senders a fee to send their mail directly to a user's mailbox -- bypassing

junk-mail filters. The fees would range from a quarter-cent to 1 cent per e-mail sent. And the offer is the latest attempt by Internet Service Providers to weed out spam as well as e-mails claiming to be from people trying to pull off identity-theft scams. In exchange for payment, e-mail senders can be guaranteed that their messages won't be filtered -- and will show up at inboxes with a seal alerting recipients they're legitimate. While optional, the plan amounts to a reversal in the

economics of the Internet because it would charge message senders rather than those receiving them. AOL and said the program, offered through a company called Goodmail Systems, will target banks, online retailers and other groups that send large amounts of e-mail. How long before their official seal is copied - other groups ????? Deb