Yahoo, AOL Set Fees for Bypassing Junk Filters

Two of the world’s largest e-mail account providers, Yahoo Inc. and America Online, plan to introduce a service that would charge senders a fee to route their e-mail directly to a user’s mailbox without first passing through junk mail filters, representatives of the companies said Sunday.

The fees, which would be a quarter of a cent to a penny per e-mail, are the latest attempts by the companies to separate legitimate mail from unsolicited ads, or spam, as well as identity-theft scams. In exchange for paying, e-mail senders would be guaranteed their messages would not be filtered and would bear a seal alerting recipients they’re legitimate.

Both companies have long filtered e-mail by searching for keywords commonly contained in spam and fraudulent e-mail. AOL also strips images and Web links from many messages to prevent the display of pornographic pictures and malicious Web addresses. Both practices sometimes falsely identify legitimate messages as junk mail, making life difficult for businesses that rely on e-mail.

“We were hearing not only from members but also e-mail partners that they wanted a different way of delivering e-mail that would stand out in the inbox and would guarantee them delivery,” spokesman Nicholas Graham said, adding that AOL, a division of New York-based Time Warner Inc., would start offering the service in the next two months.

Yahoo spokeswoman Karen Mahon said Sunday that the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company would begin offering a similar service in the coming months.

The plan, which would be optional and apply only to a fraction of e-mail senders, amounts to a reversal in the economics of the Internet because it would charge senders rather than recipients. The current model has led to the proliferation of spam and so-called phishing scams because the people perpetuating them can turn a profit even if only a minority of recipients respond, analysts have said.

AOL and Yahoo said the program, which is being offered through Mountain View, Calif.-based Goodmail Systems, would target banks, online retailers and other groups that send large amounts of e-mail. In exchange for a payment and a pledge to contact only people who have agreed to receive their messages, the companies would be assured that their e-mails would not be diverted to spam folders or have images or addresses filtered out.

The companies also would receive reports indicating how many e-mails were received successfully. The American Red Cross, New York Times Co. and Experian Inc., the Costa Mesa-based credit information firm, have signed up with Goodmail to use the service, Graham said. AOL and Yahoo would get a cut of the fees charged by Goodmail.

Companies that don’t want to pay a fee would be able to send e-mail to Yahoo and AOL members exactly as they have in the past, Graham and Mahon said.