The idea, no matter how whacky it might seem, was proposed by some online heavyweights like Yahoo and AOL, who want to charge for preferential email delivery, according to a report in the New York Times. The two companies will impose a tax between a quarter of a cent and one cent to deliver special messages. But not anybody can have the opportunity to pay in order to send email the secure way, all users willing to do so must first promise that they will not resort to this system in order to send spam and that the recipients actually want to receive the messages involved. The system will be accessible only on a prior registration basis.

According to the two companies, all messages will be delivered straight to people's inboxes, avoiding spam filters. This still remains to be proven and it's very likely this is more a best case scenario than reality.

AOL and Yahoo say that this procedure will help them identify legitimate mail and cut down on junk e-mail, identity-phishing scams and other types of fraud that plague users. This all sounds just peachy, except for the charging side of the story... which should earn these companies millions of dollars if the system will be widely adopted.