Charging for "certified" email

Yeah, just what I need. A certified email about penis enlargement. Two things about this:

1. Now spammers can easily bypass the filters by spending a little dough

2. Now I've got to pay money to get an email through

ABC News: You've Got ... Certified E-mail?

"You've got mail," and now you may have "certified" mail. AOL and Yahoo users will soon see it in their inboxes â.. certified e-mail sent, at a price, with a stamp of approval.

The Internet (and e-mail) giants have partnered with Goodmail Systems, which will charge companies about 1/4 cent to send a message that will bypass spam filters. It's expected that nonprofit organizations will pay less.

"This is an optional service," said Richard Gingras, CEO of Goodmail Systems. "Right now it's open to messages from businesses to their existing customers."

But some e-mail service providers complain that "certificated mail" is nothing more than an e-mail tax.

"AOL and Yahoo, and especially AOL, stand to gain significantly from this arrangement," said Matt Blumberg, CEO of e-mail consulting firm Return Path. Blumberg, whose company assists businesses such as eBay and American Express reach their customers by e-mail, says "there are uses for certification but not to solve spam."

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