Two of the world's biggest e-mail account providers are planning to charge senders an optional fee to route e-mail directly to a user's mailbox without first passing through junk mail filters, representatives of both companies say.

The Yahoo and America Online (AOL) fees, which would cost up to one cent per e-mail, are the latest attempts to weed out unsolicited ads, commonly called spam, and identity theft scams.

In exchange for paying, e-mail senders will be guaranteed their messages will not be filtered and will bear a seal alerting recipients they are legitimate.

Both companies have long filtered e-mail by searching for keywords commonly contained in spam and fraudulent e-mail. AOL also strips images and web links from many messages to prevent the display of pornographic pictures and malicious Web addresses.

Both practices sometimes falsely identify legitimate messages as junk mail, making life difficult for businesses that rely on e-mail.

"We were hearing not only from members but also e-mail partners that they wanted a different way of delivering e-mail that would stand out in the in box and would guarantee them delivery," said spokesman Nicholas Graham, adding that AOL, a division of Time Warner, will start offering the service in the next two months.

Spokeswoman Karen Mahon said today that Yahoo will begin offering a similar service in the coming months.

The plan, while it is optional and would apply to only a fraction of people sending e-mail, amounts to a reversal in the economics of the Internet because it would charge message senders rather than those receiving them.

The current model has led to the proliferation of spam and so-called phishing scams because the people perpetuating them can turn a profit even when only a minority of recipients respond, analysts say.

AOL and Yahoo say the program, which is being offered through a company called Goodmail Systems, will target banks, online retailers and other groups that send large amounts of e-mail.

Companies that do not want to pay a fee will be able to send e-mail to Yahoo and AOL members exactly as they have in the past, Graham and Mahon said.