Yahoo/AOL will allow emails to bust through your spam filters if the sender PAYS $$

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Big net firms are trying to stop spammers by charging to deliver e-mail messages.

AOL and Yahoo plan to charge fees of up to one cent (US) per message to those that sign up for the service.

Paying the fees means that messages will not go through spam filters, are guaranteed to arrive and will bear a stamp of authenticity.

Both AOL and Yahoo said they would start offering the service within the next few months.

[...]

Under the plan, senders of e-mail will be charged fees ranging from one-quarter of a cent up to one cent to get messages through to AOL and Yahoo users. Despite the low fees, the service is likely to generate huge amounts of money for AOL and Yahoo.

In return for the fee, AOL and Yahoo will not send the messages through spam traps and filters that typically strip out all images and weblinks in an e-mail.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4684942.stm

[CarolineM 0]

ugh. I'm disgusted.

[almaty 19]

aol suks

[raymaga 25]

Why am I NOT surprised???????

[ChristinaM 0]

ugh. I'm disgusted.

Just goes to show it's not about eliminating spam and virus protection, if you've got enough cash.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

ugh. I'm disgusted.

Just goes to show it's not about eliminating spam and virus protection, if you've got enough cash.

Yeap.

I wonder what AOL/Yahoo will do to ensure that paying senders only send content that is "safe for work" and free of malicious code.

[Fuzzness 2]

Not sure how this will work. I used to work very closely with mail servers, and one thing I learned is that you can never guarantee that an email will reach its destination.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Not sure how this will work. I used to work very closely with mail servers, and one thing I learned is that you can never guarantee that an email will reach its destination.

I don't think Yahoo/AOL plan to guarantee delivery. That is impossible. I believe they merely want to charge for the ability to SEND emails witha a flag that allows for those emails to bust through Yahoo/AOL spam/content rendering filters.