If you were a spammer (i.e. one who sends out spam emails), would you pay to make sure they get delivered? If you knew that it could cost you between .25 and 1 cent to make sure your email filled with viagra and all the rest makes it to the inbox of a user, would you pay?
Not sure how this works out with end-user junk mail filters, but AOL is still pressing ahead with plans to charge, per email, for email delivery according to BBC.
AOL said the plan would reduce the amount of junk mail that people received because spammers were unlikely to pay the high fees required to get their messages to users.
Those that did not pay would have their e-mail treated as normal and risk it getting stuck in junk filters and marked as spam. Yahoo is also planning a similar service.
If the email is that important, there’s still no proof that the recipient ACTUALLY received it, or read it for that matter. Of course, if you’re a non-profit organistation then you won’t have to pay for the service. What I want to know is, would you genuinely pay for such a service? Whether you were a spam mailer or a regular email user. I can’t see it actually stamping out spam email, but is it worth going to such lengths? If you were determined to flood the internet with promises of certain extensions to your body and mind, would the thought of .25 cent per mail be enough to shut you down?
I’m not sure I follow how it works. If you pay, your mail definitely gets delivered? Regardless of whether its spam? And if you don’t pay, it just gets the normal treatment, maybe filtered? Sounds like a lot of wasted effort. Most people won’t pay, and the only people that will pay are the ones that have a problem with the system as is, i.e. spammers. So it doesn’t reduce spam, it just gives spammers a way to get mail into your inbox, albeit at a small price!
Thats pretty much how it works alright, delivery is certain, or at least it will bypass AOL’s spam filters, I’m sure if the user has a blacklist on their machine it will get caught there. I figure if spammers make enough money anyway by suckering people into false emails that they’re likely willing to spend a little to make sure it keeps happening!