One additional point in response to this point: >So let's see.. Currently, if your bank sells your e-mail address to another >company, >you get spammed. So instead, you'll have it so that you check your bank's POP >server in case there's important mail about your mortgage. Seems like the >obvious >scheme is for the bank to charge the other company to put stuff in your POP >mailbox. > >So you still get spammed... In addition to what I wrote below, remember that when the bank is sending me an individual email regarding some business I am conducting with them, they are not sending that email in bulk (to any one else). They could send that directly to my email. If they are indeed sending a similar email to ALL their clients at the same time, then in that case they are sending bulk email. So with my proposal, it just forces business to separate their business email from their marketing bulk email. If I trust my bank to send only important bulk email, then I can add that POP account to ones that my email client checks regularly (as regularly as I chose, not as my bank choses...gives me the control). Given that email is insecure transmission medium, no business should be sending me anything too important in email. They had better have an alternative means of getting in contact with me about important and urgent matters. ---I wrote before only---- No. Because you can chose to not check it and/or you at least know who is spamming you and can hold them responsible directly. Thus your bank would stop doing it, because they make $ by not losing your business.