AOL and Yahoo are planning to charge trusted marketers up to one cent per email to guarantee their messages pass through spam filters. Not everyone is convinced that’s the answer to cutting down on the spam glut, particularly Australia.

The proposed plan goes like this: only people who opt to receive the paid for ‘premium spam’ will receive the message. Companies found guilty of sending spam to those who have not opted to receive the email could be banned from sending the messages entirely.

AOL and Yahoo argue that if businesses are made to pay a fee it will encourage them to keep email lists up-to-date and encourage greater compliance with anti-spam regulations. As well, they feel that the fee, although minimal, will discourage spammers from randomly sending unsolicited emails that bounce back or were never properly delivered in the first place.

“We want emails sent using the technology to have a stamp of authentication, so consumers know an email that appears to be from a bank really is from that bank,” said an AOL representative. “We think that will help cut down on spam.”

Several Australian organisations feel the internet giants are contributing to the spam problem rather than solving it. Chances are the average user will trust the ‘premium spam’, which can be dangerous and misleading if people mistake the email to be legitimate.

“It’s disappointing when service providers seem to ‘leap the fence’ and contribute to the problem instead of the solution,” said Neal Wide from Sydney’s security consulting firm Assurance.com.au. “Especially given Yahoo’s (and AOL’s) record with participating in effective anti-spam initiatives.”

Internet Security Systems (ISS) feels the same way. “Whilst this type of service might put some serious ‘amateur’ phishers or spammers off, it might not be a complete deterrent for a more serious phisher or spammer. For example, it might only take one e-mail recipient to provide a phisher with their personal account details for that phisher to still potentially make a profit out of the exercise (despite paying for the service initially),” said a ISS representative.

Aussies need not worry about the plan—for now at least. Australia’s biggest online media company, ninemsn, is not planning on introducing the pay-per-email model.

According to a company representative, “Ninemsn takes the privacy and security of it’s customers very seriously…Currently we do not have plans to introduce the fee-based preferential email program.”