Firms to be charged to beat email filters

Email providers are to charge companies a fee to ensure their emails reach customers, it emerged today.

AOL, one of the internet’s biggest email providers, is due to launch a paid-for service which will allow businesses to beat spam filters and guarantee delivery.

For a fraction of a penny, companies such as banks can send emails to their customers, knowing they will arrive promptly.

A spokesman for AOL said the scheme would begin in the US and Canada in the second quarter of the year.

A service for British companies would follow, he said.

“We want emails sent using the technology to have a stamp of authentication, so that consumers know that an email that appears to be from a bank really is from that bank.

“We think that will help cut down on spam, but we don’t want consumers to pay any extra,” he told The Times.

Yahoo! – another of the world’s largest email providers – is expected to follow suit with the scheme.

The two companies will use Goodmail, a paid-for certification scheme, which will allow emails past junk filters but promises to prevent spammers using it to send bulk emails.

AOL said its filters currently block 1.5 billion emails a day, while only 300 million get through.