Method and apparatus for implementing a micropayment system to control e-mail spam

• US 20050182735A1
• Filed: 02/12/2004
• Published: 08/18/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Iconix Incorporated (Matthews Group LLC)
• Original Assignee: Iconix Incorporated (Matthews Group LLC)
• Inventors: Zager, Robert Philip, Picazo, Jose Jesus Jr., Duvvoori, Vikram, Ames, William, Vempaty, Nageshwara Rao
• Application Number:
  US10/778,956
• Publication Number:
  US 20050182735A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/67
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/04 Payment circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/29 characterised by micropayments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3674 involving authentication

Abstract

A micropayments method and apparatus to control spam using a centralized server architecture. The central server receives requests from senders who want to send emails, and determines if the sender has a micropayments account with an adequate balance. If so, an encrypted stemp is sent back to the sender and the amount of micropayment is deducted from the account or transferred to the recipients account. The key and a serial number of the message is saved in the server. The recipient computer receives the email, sends the serial number to the server and requests the key. The key is looked up and sent back to the recipient. Many alternative embodiments are disclosed such as centralized stemp decryption, centralized white lists, decentralized key decryption, one key used all the time for a particular recipient, transfer of value to recipient only upon opening message, etc.

Claims

19. A process to transfer micropayment value from one email user to another, comprising the steps:

1) receiving at a micropayments server a micropayment value transfer message from a sender computer of a sender of email or from a recipient computer of a recipient of email;

2) identify and authenticate the sender of the value transfer message, sender meaning the person who wishes to transfer a micropayment amount out of his or her account to another user'"'"'s account;

3) verifying that said sender of said value transfer message has a valid micropayments account with an adequate balance for the transfer;

4) deduct the transferred amount from said sender'"'"'s account and deposit said transferred amount into said recipient'"'"'s account.

20. The process of claim 19 further comprising the step of sending back an encrypted stemp to said sender of said value transfer message after step 4 if said value transfer message came directly to said server from said sender, and sending a message to said recipient computer indicating the amount of micropayment transferred into the recipient'"'"'s account.

21. A process carried out on a micropayments server which is coupled via a data path to recipient computers and sender computers, comprising the steps:

1) communicating with at least said sender computers to establish micropayment accounts, receive payments and keep track of account balances for each user;

2) receiving a request message from a sender computer indicating a user of said sender computer wishes to send an email with a micropayment as part thereof and including information by which said sender computer can be identified and authenticated;

3) responding to said request message by identifying and authenticating said sender computer and determining if said sender computer has a micropayments account and determining if the balance of said micropayments account is adequate for the amount of micropayment to be made;

4) if said sender computer has a micropayments account with a balance adequate for said micropayment, deducting the amount of a micropayment from said account balance;

5) generating an encrypted stemp encoding the amount of the deducted micropayment and sending said encrypted stemp to said sender computer and maintain knowledge of an encryption key used to encrypt said stemp;

6) communicating with recipient computers to assist them in accepting predetermined emails and rejecting other predetermined emails so as to reduce the amount of spam email which is viewed by a user of said recipient computers.

1. A server for a micropayments system comprising:

first means for communicating with computers of potential subscribers to set up micropayment accounts, receive payments and keep track of account balances for each user;

second means for communicating with a micropayment sender process executing on a computer of a sender of email to receive a message requesting stemps, authenticate said sender process, check for a micropayments account for said sender and determine if said account has a sufficient balance to enable issuing a stemp, send back an encrypted stemp to said sender process encoding a micropayment amount and deduct said micropayment amount from said account balance, and know the key used to encrypt said stemp sent to each sender process in response to a request to add a micropayment to each particular email;

third means for communicating with a micropayment receiver process executing on a computer of a recipient of email to assist said receiver process to block spam.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said second means comprises means for generating a key for encrypting said stemp each time a request is received to send back an encrypted stemp and further comprises means for assigning a unique serial number or identifier to each email which is the subject of a request to send back a stemp, and wherein said second means knows the key used to encrypt said stemp sent to said sender process in response to each request to send a stemp by virtue of the process of generating said key each time such a request is received and storing said key along with the serial number or identifier assigned to said email, and further comprising means which are part of said second means for sending back said unique serial number or identifier with each encrypted stemp.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said first means comprises registration means for receiving a registration message from a sender process executing on a computer of a user desiring to set up a micropayment account for a user and said registration means for responding to said registration request message by carrying out a protocol to set up said account for said user.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein said registration means further comprises means to respond to said registration message by generating a key which will be used to encrypt all stemps for emails sent to said user, store the key generated for each user upon receiving a registration message from said user in a database of such keys and link said key to said user, and wherein said second means receives information about the recipient identity with every request from a sender process to send back an encrypted stemp for an email message to a recipient and using the recipient identity to look up the key that is to be used to encrypt the stemp from said database of keys for each recipient, and wherein said second means uses the key so found to encrypt the stemp sent to each sender response in response to a request to send an email to said recipient.

5. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein said registration means further comprises means to receive a key generated by each user and included in said user'"'"'s registration message upon receiving said registration message and storing the key from each said user in a database of such keys, each key linked to the user from which it was received, and wherein said second means receives information about the recipient identity with every request from a sender process to send back an encrypted stemp for an email message to a recipient and uses the recipient identity to look up the key that is to be used to encrypt the stemp from said database of keys for each recipient, and wherein said second means uses the key so found to encrypt the stemp sent to each sender response in response to a request to send an email to said recipient.

6. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein said registration means further comprises means for responding to said registration message by generating a key which will be used to encrypt all stemps for emails sent to said user, store the key generated for each user upon receiving a registration message from said user in a database of such keys and link said key to said user, and send said key generated in response to receipt of each registration message back to said sender process which sent said registration message, and wherein said second means receives information about the recipient identity with every request from a sender process to send back an encrypted stemp for an email message to a recipient uses the recipient identity to look up the key that is to be used to encrypt the stemp from said database of keys for each recipient, and wherein said second means uses the key so found to encrypt the stemp sent to each sender response in response to a request to send an email to said recipient.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said third means comprises means for receiving a key request message from a receiver process executing on a computer of a recipient of an email that has an encrypted stemp, said request message containing data from which said recipient can be identified and authenticated and including a serial number or identifer included in an email received by said recipient and including a request for a key, said third means responding to said request by identifying and authenticating said recipient using information in said key request message, and if said user is authentic, using said serial number or identifier included in said key request message to look up the key used to encrypt said stemp in the email received by said recipient and send said key back to said receiver process.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said third means comprises means for receiving a decrypt stemp message from a receiver process executing on a computer of a recipient of an email that has an encrypted stemp, said message containing data from which said recipient can be identified and authenticated or the serial number or identifier of the email received and including a copy of an encrypted stemp included in an email received by said recipient and including a request to decrypt said stemp and indicate if the micropayment of said stemp is adequate, and wherein said third means responds to said request by identifying and authenticating said recipient using information in said decrypt stemp request message, and if said recipient is authentic, using the identity of the recipient or the serial number or identifier of the email to look up a key used to encrypt said stemp at a sender process which sent said email and decrypting said stemp in the stemp decrypt request message received by said recipient, and comparing the amount of micropayment represented by the decrypted stemp to a threshold amount which is adequate and sending back a message to said receiver process indicating whether the micropayment amount is or is not adequate.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein said third means further comprises means for storing a variable threshold table or database which has a programmable threshold determining what adequate micropayments are for each user in said table or database.

10. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein said third means further comprises means for storing a variable threshold table or database which has a programmable threshold determining what adequate micropayments are for each user in said table or database, and for carrying out communications with each user to establish what each user wants its threshold to be and wherein each user can establish different thresholds for different senders.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said third means comprises means for receiving a message from a receiver process on a recipient computer that indicates the receiver process received an email with no stemp and for determining the email address of the sender and for sending a message to said sender indicating the recipient did not view the email because of insufficient postage and inviting the sender to establish a micropayments account, and for determining if said sender responded with information to establish a valid micropayments account, and, if so, for deducting a micropayment amount adequate to allow the recipient to view the email and sending a message to said recipient indicating the sender had established a micropayments account and that the email can be viewed, but if the sender did not establish a micropayments account, for sending a message to said receiver process on said recipient'"'"'s computer instructing it to send said email to the trash.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein said third means comprises means for determining the email address of the sender by reading said email address from data included in said message from said receiver process which received said email with no stemp present.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said third means comprises means for receiving a message from a receiver process on a recipient computer that indicates the receiver process received an email with no stemp and for determining the email address of the sender and for sending a message to said sender containing a challenge question which only a human viewing the challenge could answer and requesting the user to answer the question and send back a response, and for determining if said sender correctly answered the challenge question in a response, and, if a correct challenge response was received, sending a message to said recipient indicating the sender had correctly answered a challenge question and that the email can be viewed, but if the sender did not correctly answer the challenge question, for sending a message to said receiver process on said recipient'"'"'s computer instructing it to send said email to the trash.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said third means comprises means for receiving a decrypt stemp message from a receiver process executing on a computer of a recipient of an email that has an encrypted stemp or which arrived without a stemp, said message containing data from which said recipient can be identified and authenticated or the serial number or identifier of the email received and including a copy of an encrypted stemp included in an email received by said recipient or an indication that no stemp was included in said email, and including a request to decrypt said stemp and indicate if the micropayment of said stemp is adequate, and wherein said third means responds to said request by identifying and authenticating said recipient using information in said decrypt stemp request message, and if said recipient is authentic, using the identity of the recipient or the serial number or identifier of the email to look up a key used to encrypt said stemp at a sender process which sent said email and decrypting said stemp in the stemp decrypt request message received by said recipient, and comparing the amount of micropayment represented by the decrypted stemp to a threshold amount stored in a table or database for said recipient, and if the value of micropayment represented by said decrypted stemp is adequate and sending back a message to said receiver process indicating that the micropayment amount is adequate, and, if the decrypted stemp has an inadequate amount of micropayment or no stemp was included in said email at all, sending a message to said sender of said email containing a request to answer a challenge question posed in said message to said sender, said challenge question being a question that only a human viewing said challenge question on a computer screen could successfully answer, and for determining if a correct response to said challenge question was received, and, if so, sending a message to said receiver process executing on the recipient'"'"'s computer indicating the email can be viewed and, if no correct challenge response was received, sending a message to said receiver process executing on the recipient'"'"'s computer indicating the email should be discarded or put in a potential spam folder.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said third means comprises means for receiving a decrypt stemp message from a receiver process executing on a computer of a recipient of an email that has an encrypted stemp or which arrived without a stemp, said message containing data from which said recipient can be identified and authenticated or the serial number or identifier of the email received and including a copy of an encrypted stemp included in an email received by said recipient or an indication that no stemp was included in said email, and including a request to decrypt said stemp and indicate if the micropayment of said stemp is adequate, and wherein said third means responds to said request by identifying and authenticating said recipient using information in said decrypt stemp request message, and if said recipient is authentic, using the identity of the recipient or the serial number or identifier of the email to look up a key used to encrypt said stemp at a sender process which sent said email and decrypting said stemp in the stemp decrypt request message received by said recipient, and comparing the amount of micropayment represented by the decrypted stemp to a threshold amount stored in a table or database for said recipient, and if the value of micropayment represented by said decrypted stemp is adequate and sending back a message to said receiver process indicating that the micropayment amount is adequate, and, if the decrypted stemp has an inadequate amount of micropayment or no stemp was included in said email at all, sending a message to said sender of said email inquiring as to whether said sender would like to establish a micropayments account, and for determining if a request to establish a micropayments account was received and a valid micropayments account was received, and, if so, sending a message to said receiver process executing on the recipient'"'"'s computer indicating the email can be viewed and, if no valid micropayments account was established by said sender, sending a message to said receiver process executing on the recipient'"'"'s computer indicating the email should be discarded or put in a potential spam folder.

16. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said third means comprises means for receiving a message from a receiver process executing on a computer of a recipient of an email that has no encrypted stemp, said message containing data from which said recipient can be identified and authenticated and containing an indication that no stemp was included in an email said recipient received, and identifying the sender of said email and including a request to add said sender to a white list maintained for said recipient by said server, and said third means further comprising means to respond to said request by identifying and authenticating said recipient using information in said message, and if said recipient is authentic, adding the sender to a white list maintained by said server for said recipient, and sending a message to said sender indicating said recipient has added the sender to the recipient'"'"'s white list and that the sender can thereafter send emails to this recipient with no micropayments.

17. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said third means comprises means for receiving a message from a receiver process executing on a computer of a recipient of an email that has no encrypted stemp, said message containing data from which said recipient can be identified and authenticated and containing an indication that no stemp was included in an email said recipient received, and identifying the sender of said email and including a request to add said sender to a white list maintained for said recipient by said server, and said third means further comprising means to respond to said request by identifying and authenticating said recipient using information in said message, and if said recipient is authentic, adding the sender to a white list maintained by said server for said recipient, said white list containing a programmable threshold amount each recipient has set to receive email from various senders or classes of senders, and sending a message to said sender indicating the threshold amount said recipient has established to receive email from this sender and inquiring whether the sender would like to establish a micropayments account and pay the threshold amount therefrom to allow the email message to be viewed by the recipient or, if the sender already has a micropayments account, inquiring whether the sender would like to deduct the threshold amount from the sender'"'"'s micropayment account in order to cause the server to send a message to said recipient that it is permissible to view the email, and if the sender does not have a micropayments account and does not establish one or indicates he does not want the threshold amount deducted from his micropayments account, sending a message to said receiver process executing on recipient'"'"'s computer indicating the email message should not be viewed or placed in a potential spam folder, and if the sender sends back a message indicating he or she would like to have the threshold amount deducted from an already existing micropayment account for this sender or establish a micropayments account and have the threshold amount deducted therefrom, deducting the threshold amount from the sender'"'"'s already existing micropayment account or establishing a micropayments account for said sender and deducting the threshold amount from said account, as appropriate, and sending a message to said receiver process executing on the recipient'"'"'s computer indicating the email can be viewed.

18. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising fourth means for transferring value to a recipients micropayments account or the account of another designated by the recipient when a transfer value message is received at said server.

22. The process of claim 21 further comprising the steps:

7) receiving at said micropayments server a micropayment value transfer message from a sender computer of a sender of email or from a recipient computer of a recipient of email, said value transfer message being either part of said request message received in step 2 or a separate message;

8) identifying and authenticating the sender of the value transfer message, sender meaning the person who wishes to transfer a micropayment amount out of his or her account to another user'"'"'s account;

9) verifying that said sender of said value transfer message has a valid micropayments account with an adequate balance for the transfer;

10) deducting the transferred amount from said sender'"'"'s account and deposit said transferred amount into said recipient'"'"'s account.

23. The process of claim 22 further comprising the step of sending a message to said recipient computer indicating the amount of micropayment transferred into the recipient'"'"'s account.

24. The process of claim 21 wherein step 1 comprises the following steps:

receiving a registration message from a process executing on a sender computer of a user desiring to set up a micropayment account for a user;

responding to said registration request message by carrying out a protocol to set up said micropayment account for said user;

responding to said registration message by generating a key in said micropayments server, said key for use in future encryption of all stemps for emails sent to said user of said sender computer which sent said registration message;

storing said key generated for each user in a database of such keys and link said key to said user;

and wherein step 2 comprises

receiving information about the identity of the recipient on the email which is the subject of said request message received in step 2 and using the recipient'"'"'s identity to look up from said database of keys for each recipient the key that is to be used to encrypt the stemp for said email to be sent to said recipient;

and wherein step 5 comprises the steps;

using the key so found to encrypt the stemp sent to said sender computer for sending in an email to said recipient computer.

25. The process of claim 21 wherein step 1 comprises the following steps:

receiving a registration message from a process executing on a sender computer of a user desiring to set up a micropayment account for a user;

responding to said registration request message by carrying out a protocol to set up said micropayment account for said user;

responding to said registration message by generating a key in said micropayments server, said key for use in future encryption of all stemps for emails sent to said user of said sender computer which sent said registration message;

storing said key generated for each user in a database of such keys and link said key to said user; and

send said key back to said computer which sent said registration message for use in decrypting stemps of incoming emails;

and wherein step 2 comprises

receiving information about the identity of the recipient on the email which is the subject of said request message received in step 2 and using the recipient'"'"'s identity to look up from said database of keys for each recipient the key that is to be used to encrypt the stemp for said email to be sent to said recipient;

and wherein step 5 comprises the steps;

using the key so found to encrypt the stemp sent to said recipient.

26. The process of claim 21:

wherein step 1 further comprises the steps of receiving a key generated by each user and included in said user'"'"'s registration message upon receiving said registration message;

storing said key received from each said user in a database of such keys, each key linked to the user from which it was received;

and wherein step 2 further comprises the steps of;

receiving information about the recipient identity with every said request message received and using the recipient identity to look up the key that is to be used to encrypt the stemp from said database of keys for each recipient;

and wherein step 5 further comprises the steps of;

using said key so found to encrypt said stemp sent to each sender response in response to a request to send an email to said recipient.

27. The process of claim 21:

wherein step 5 further comprises the steps;

generating a key unique to the email which is the subject of said request message received in step 2 and generating a serial number or identifier which is unique to said email which is the subject of said request message received in step 2;

storing said key and serial number or identifier so that said key can be looked up using said serial number or identifier;

and wherein step 5 comprises;

using said key so generated which is unique to said email to encrypt a stemp encoding a micropayment amount and sending said encrypted stemp along with said serial number or identifier to said computer which sent said request message for inclusion in said email;

and wherein step 6 comprises the steps;

receiving a key request message from a recipient computer which has received an email that has an encrypted stemp, said request message containing data from which said recipient computer can be identified and authenticated and including a serial number or identifer included in an email received by said recipient and including a request for a key to decrypt said encrypted stemp;

responding to said key request message by identifying and authenticating said recipient computer using information in said key request message, and if said user is authentic, using said serial number or identifier included in said key request message to look up the key used to encrypt said stemp in the email received by said recipient and send said key back to said recipient computer.

28. The process of claim 21 wherein step 6 comprises the steps:

receiving a decrypt stemp request message from a recipient computer which has received an email that has an encrypted stemp, said decrypt stemp message containing data from which said recipient computer can be identified and authenticated and including a serial number or identifier included in said email which was received and including a copy of an encrypted stemp included in an email received by said recipient and including a request to decrypt said stemp;

responding to said decrypt stemp request message by identifying and authenticating said recipient computer using information in said decrypt stemp request message;

if said recipient computer is authentic, looking up the key that was used to encrypt said stemp at a sender computer which sent said email and decrypting said stemp included in the stemp decrypt request message; and

sending back to recipient computer a message to said recipient computer indicating whether the micropayment amount is or is not adequate.

29. The process of claim 21 wherein step 6 comprises the steps:

receiving a decrypt stemp request message from a recipient computer which has received an email that has an encrypted stemp, said decrypt stemp message containing data from which said recipient computer can be identified and authenticated and including a serial number or identifier included in said email which was received and including a copy of an encrypted stemp included in an email received by said recipient and including a request to decrypt said stemp;

responding to said decrypt stemp request message by identifying and authenticating said recipient computer using information in said decrypt stemp request message;

if said recipient computer is authentic, looking up the key that was used to encrypt said stemp at a sender computer which sent said email and decrypting said stemp included in the stemp decrypt request message and looking up a micropayment threshold amount for this recipient computer or for this recipient computer based upon the identity of this particular sender;

comparing the decrypted stemp amount to the value of said micropayment threshold; and

sending back to recipient computer a message to said recipient computer indicating whether the micropayment amount is or is not adequate.

30. The process of claim 21 wherein step 6 comprises the steps:

receiving a decrypt stemp request message from a recipient computer which has received an email that has an encrypted stemp, said decrypt stemp message containing data from which said recipient computer can be identified and authenticated and including a serial number or identifier included in said email which was received and including a copy of an encrypted stemp included in an email received by said recipient and including a request to decrypt said stemp;

responding to said decrypt stemp request message by identifying and authenticating said recipient computer using information in said decrypt stemp request message;

if said recipient computer is authentic, looking up the key that was used to encrypt said stemp at a sender computer which sent said email and decrypting said stemp included in the stemp decrypt request message; and

sending back the decrypted stemp to said recipient computer or a message to said recipient computer indicating whether the micropayment amount is or is not adequate.

31. The process of claim 21 wherein step 6 comprises the steps:

receiving a decrypt stemp request message from a recipient computer which has received an email that has an encrypted stemp, said decrypt stemp message containing data from which said recipient computer can be identified and authenticated and including a copy of an encrypted stemp included in an email received by said recipient and including a request to decrypt said stemp;

responding to said decrypt stemp request message by identifying and authenticating said recipient computer using information in said decrypt stemp request message;

if said recipient computer is authentic, looking up the key that was used to encrypt said stemp at a sender computer which sent said email, said key being established by said server for said recipient computer at the time the user of said recipient computer first established a micropayments account;

decrypting said stemp included in the stemp decrypt request message using said key associated with said recipient computer; and

sending back the decrypted stemp to said recipient computer or a message to said recipient computer indicating whether the micropayment amount is or is not adequate.

32. The process of claim 21 wherein step 6 comprises the steps:

receiving a decrypt stemp request message from a recipient computer which has received an email that has an encrypted stemp, said decrypt stemp message containing data from which said recipient computer can be identified and authenticated and including a copy of an encrypted stemp included in an email received by said recipient and including a request to decrypt said stemp;

responding to said decrypt stemp request message by identifying and authenticating said recipient computer using information in said decrypt stemp request message;

if said recipient computer is authentic, looking up the key that was used to encrypt said stemp at a sender computer which sent said email, said key being established by said recipient computer at the time the user of said recipient computer first established a micropayments account;

decrypting said stemp included in the stemp decrypt request message using said key associated with said recipient computer; and

sending back the decrypted stemp to said recipient computer or a message to said recipient computer indicating whether the micropayment amount is or is not adequate.

33. The process of claim 21:

wherein step 1 comprises the steps;

after establishing a micropayment account for each user, carrying out communications with each user to establish what each user wants its micropayment threshold to be either in general for all incoming emails or so as to establish different micropayment thresholds for different senders;

and wherein step 6 comprises the steps;

receiving a decrypt stemp request message from a recipient computer which has received an email that has an encrypted stemp, said decrypt stemp message containing data from which said recipient computer can be identified and authenticated and including a serial number or identifier included in said email which was received and including a copy of an encrypted stemp included in an email received by said recipient and including a request to decrypt said stemp;

responding to said decrypt stemp request message by identifying and authenticating said recipient computer using information in said decrypt stemp request message;

if said recipient computer is authentic, looking up the key that was used to encrypt said stemp at a sender computer which sent said email and decrypting said stemp included in the stemp decrypt request message and looking up a micropayment threshold amount for this recipient computer or for this recipient computer based upon the identity of this particular sender;

comparing the decrypted stemp amount to the value of said micropayment threshold; and

sending back to recipient computer a message to said recipient computer indicating whether the micropayment amount is or is not adequate.

34. The process of claim 21 wherein step 6 comprises the steps:

receiving a decrypt stemp request message from a recipient computer which has received an email that has an encrypted stemp, said decrypt stemp message containing data from which said recipient computer can be identified and authenticated and including a copy of an encrypted stemp included in an email received by said recipient and including a request to decrypt said stemp;

responding to said decrypt stemp request message by identifying and authenticating said recipient computer using information in said decrypt stemp request message;

if said recipient computer is authentic, looking up the key that was used to encrypt said stemp at a sender computer which sent said email and decrypting said stemp included in the stemp decrypt request message;

communicating with said recipient computer to tell it how much the micropayment amount was in said encrypted stemp and inquiring how high to set a micropayment threshold to receive mail from this particular sender computer;

receiving a reply threshold amount from said recipient computer and comparing the decrypted stemp amount to the value of said micropayment threshold; and

if the micropayment amount is adequate, sending back to recipient computer a message to said recipient computer indicating the micropayment amount is adequate;

if the micropayment amount is inadequate, sending a message to said sender computer indicating how much micropayment this sender computer must include in emails to said recipient computer in order for said emails to not be blocked and inquiring whether the user of said sender computer wishes to increase the micropayment amount;

receiving a message back from said sender computer, if any, and if said reply message indicates the user of said sender computer is willing to increase the micropayment amount on the email received by said recipient computer, authenticating said sender computer, checking for an adequate balance, and, if said balance is adequate, deducting the additional micropayment amount from said balance and sending a message to said recipient computer indicating it is permissible to unblock said email from said sender computer.

35. The process of claim 21 wherein step 6 comprises:

receiving a message from a recipient computer that indicates an email with no stemp has been received;

determining the email address of the sender of said email with no stemp;

sending a message to said sender indicating a user of said recipient computer did not view said email with no stemp because of insufficient postage and inviting said sender to establish a micropayments account;

determining if said sender responded with information to establish a valid micropayments account;

if said sender did establish and fund a micropayments account, deducting a micropayment amount adequate to allow said user of said recipient computer to view said email and sending a message to said user of said recipient computer indicating said sender has established a micropayments account and that the email can be viewed;

but if said sender did not establish and fund a micropayments account, sending a message to said recipient computer instructing it to send said email to the trash.

36. The process of claim 35 wherein said step of determining said email address of said sender comprises reading said email address from said message received from said recipient computer.

37. The process of claim 21 wherein step 6 comprises the steps:

receiving a message from a recipient computer that indicates the receiver process received an email with no stemp;

determining the email address of the sender of said email message, and sending a message to said sender containing a challenge question which only a human viewing the challenge could answer and requesting the user to answer the question and send back a response;

determining if said sender correctly answered said challenge question in a response;

if a correct challenge response was received, sending a message to said recipient computer indicating the sender has correctly answered a challenge question and that the email can be viewed;

if the sender of said email question did not correctly answer said challenge question, sending a message to said recipient computer instructing it to send said email to the trash.

38. The process of claim 21 wherein step 6 includes the steps:

receiving a decrypt stemp message from a recipient computer which received an email that has an encrypted stemp as part of said email message or which arrived without a stemp, said decrypt stemp message containing data from which a key used to encrypt any stemp in said email message can be found, said decrypt stemp message also including a copy of an encrypted stemp included in said email or an indication that no stemp was included in said email, said decrypt stemp message also including a request to decrypt said stemp;

identifying and authenticating said recipient computer using information in said decrypt stemp request message;

if said recipient is authentic, using information in said decrypt stemp message to look up an encryption key used to encrypt said stemp at a sender computer which sent said email;

using said key to decrypt said stemp in said decrypt stemp request message.

39. The process of claim 38 further comprising the steps:

comparing the amount of micropayment represented by the decrypted stemp to a threshold amount stored in a table or database for said recipient;

if the value of micropayment represented by said decrypted stemp is adequate, sending back a message to said recipient computer indicating that said micropayment amount is adequate;

if said decrypted stemp has an inadequate amount of micropayment or no stemp was included in said email at all, sending a message to said sender of said email containing a request to answer a challenge question posed in said message to said sender, said challenge question being a question that only a human viewing said challenge question on a computer screen could successfully answer;

determining if a correct response to said challenge question was received;

if a correct response was received, sending a message to said recipient'"'"'s computer indicating the email can be viewed;

if no correct response was received to said challenge question, sending a message to said recipient computer indicating the email should be discarded or put in a potential spam folder.

40. The process of claim 38 further comprising the step of sending back said decrypted stemp to said recipient computer.

41. The process of claim 21 wherein step 6 includes the steps:

receiving a decrypt stemp message from a recipient computer which received an email that has an encrypted stemp as part of said email message or which arrived without a stemp, said decrypt stemp message containing data from which a key used to encrypt any stemp in said email message can be found, said decrypt stemp message also including a copy of an encrypted stemp included in said email or an indication that no stemp was included in said email, said decrypt stemp message also including a request to decrypt said stemp;

identifying and authenticating said recipient computer using information in said decrypt stemp request message;

if said recipient is authentic, using information in said decrypt stemp message to look up an encryption key used to encrypt said stemp at a sender computer which sent said email;

using said key to decrypt said stemp in said decrypt stemp request message;

comparing the amount of micropayment represented by the decrypted stemp to a threshold amount stored in a table or database for said recipient;

if the value of micropayment represented by said decrypted stemp is adequate, sending back a message to said recipient computer indicating that said micropayment amount is adequate;

if said decrypted stemp has an inadequate amount of micropayment or no stemp was included in said email at all, sending a message to said sender of said email indicating the email said sender sent was not viewed by the recipient and will not be viewed unless a micropayment is made, and inviting said sender to establish and fund a micropayment account;

determining if said sender established and funded a micropayment account;

if said sender established and funded a micropayment account, deducting an predetermined amount from said account, and sending a message to said recipient computer indicating the email can be viewed;

if said sender did not establish and fund a micropayment account, sending a message to said recipient computer indicating said email should be discarded or put in a potential spam folder.

42. The process of claim 21 wherein step 6 includes the steps:

receiving a white list request message from a recipient computer which has received an email that has no encrypted stemp but which is from a sender which the recipient wishes to add to the recipients white list, said message containing data from which said recipient computer can be identified and authenticated and containing an indication that no stemp was included in an email said recipient received, and identifying the sender of said email and including a request to add said sender to a white list maintained for said recipient by said server;

responding to said white list request message by identifying and authenticating said recipient computer using information in said white list request message;

if said recipient computer is authentic, adding the sender of said email to a white list maintained by said server for said recipient, and sending a message to said sender indicating said recipient has added the sender to the recipient'"'"'s white list and that the sender can thereafter send emails to this recipient with no micropayments; and

if the computer which sent said request message is not authenticated as the recipient'"'"'s computer, doing nothing and not adding the sender to the recipient'"'"'s white list.

43. The process of claim 21 wherein step 6 comprises the steps:

receiving a white list request message from a recipient computer that an email that has no encrypted stemp has been received, said message also containing data from which said recipient can be identified and authenticated and identifying the sender of said email and including a request to add said sender to a white list maintained for said recipient by said server;

responding to said white list request message by identifying and authenticating said recipient computer using information in said white list request message, and if said recipient computer is authentic, adding the sender to a white list maintained by said server for said recipient, said white list containing a programmable threshold amount each recipient has set to receive email from various senders or classes of senders;

sending a message to said sender indicating the threshold amount said recipient has established to receive email from this sender and inquiring whether the sender would like to establish a micropayments account and pay the threshold amount therefrom to allow the email message to be viewed by the recipient or, if the sender already has a micropayments account, inquiring whether the sender would like to deduct the threshold amount from the sender'"'"'s micropayment account in order to cause the server to send a message to said recipient that it is permissible to view the email;

determining if the sender does not have a micropayments account and does not establish one or indicates he does not want the threshold amount deducted from his micropayments account, and, if either of these event occurs, sending a message to said recipient computer indicating the email message should not be viewed or placed in a potential spam folder;

if the sender sends back a message indicating he or she would like to have the threshold amount deducted from an already existing micropayment account for this sender or establish a micropayments account and have the threshold amount deducted therefrom, deducting the threshold amount from the sender'"'"'s already existing micropayment account or establishing a micropayments account for said sender and deducting the threshold amount from said account, as appropriate; and

sending a message to said recipient computer indicating the email can be viewed.

23-1. The process of claim 21 wherein step 5 comprises the steps of:

generating a key for encrypting said stemp each time a request is received to send back an encrypted stemp;

assigning a unique serial number or identifier to each email which is the subject of a request to send back a stemp;

storing said key along with said serial number or identifier assigned to said email;

sending back said unique serial number or identifier with each encrypted stemp.

44. The process of claim wherein step 6 comprises the steps:

receiving a white list request message from a recipient computer that an email that has no encrypted stemp has been received, said message also containing data from which said recipient can be identified and authenticated and identifying the sender of said email and including a request to add said sender to a white list maintained for said recipient by said server;

responding to said white list request message by identifying and authenticating said recipient computer using information in said white list request message, and if said recipient computer is authentic, adding the sender to a white list maintained by said server for said recipient, said white list containing a programmable threshold amount each recipient has set to receive email from various senders or classes of senders;

sending a message to said sender indicating the threshold amount said recipient has established to receive email from this sender and inquiring whether the sender would like to establish a micropayments account and pay the threshold amount therefrom to allow the email message to be viewed by the recipient or, if the sender already has a micropayments account, inquiring whether the sender would like to deduct the threshold amount from the sender'"'"'s micropayment account in order to cause the server to send a message to said recipient that it is permissible to view the email;

determining if the sender does not have a micropayments account and does not establish one or indicates he does not want the threshold amount deducted from his micropayments account, and, if either of these event occurs, sending a message to said recipient computer indicating the email message should not be viewed or placed in a potential spam folder;

if the sender sends back a message indicating he or she would like to have the threshold amount deducted from an already existing micropayment account for this sender or establish a micropayments account and have the threshold amount deducted therefrom, deducting the threshold amount from the sender'"'"'s already existing micropayment account or establishing a micropayments account for said sender and deducting the threshold amount from said account, as appropriate; and

sending a message to said recipient computer indicating the email can be viewed and indicating how much value will be transferred to the recipient'"'"'s micropayments account, or the account of another designated by the recipient if the recipient opens the message, and waiting for confirmation that the recipient opened the message;

if a confirmation message is received from said recipient computer which is automatically generated when a recipient opens an email message which indicates the recipient opened said email sent by said sender, authenticating said recipient computer which opened said message using information in said confirmation message, and transferring the amount deducted from sender'"'"'s micropayments account to said recipient'"'"'s micropayments account or to the account of another designated by the recipient.

45. A process carried out on a micropayments server which is coupled via a data path to recipient computers and sender computers, comprising the steps:

1) communicating with at least said sender computers to establish micropayment accounts, receive payments and keep track of account balances for each user;

2) receiving a request message from a sender computer indicating a user of said sender computer wishes to send an email with a micropayment as part thereof and including information by which said sender computer can be identified and authenticated;

3) responding to said request message by identifying and authenticating said sender computer and determining if said sender computer has a micropayments account and determining if the balance of said micropayments account is adequate for the amount of micropayment to be made;

4) if said sender computer has a micropayments account with a balance adequate for said micropayment, deducting the amount of a micropayment from said account balance;

5) generating an encrypted stemp encoding the amount of the deducted micropayment and sending said encrypted stemp to said sender computer and maintain knowledge of an encryption key used to encrypt said stemp;

6) communicating with recipient computers to assist them in accepting predetermined emails and rejecting other predetermined emails so as to reduce the amount of spam email which is viewed by a user of said recipient computers; and

7) transferring value to a recipients micropayments account or to the account of another designated by said recipient when a transfer value message is received at said server.

46. A computer readable medium having computer-executable instructions thereon for controlling an email micropayments server coupled through a wide area network such as the internet to a plurality of sender and recipient computers to execute the following process:

1) communicating with at least said sender computers to establish micropayment accounts, receive payments and keep track of account balances for each user;

2) receiving a request message from a sender computer indicating a user of said sender computer wishes to send an email with a micropayment as part thereof and including information by which said sender computer can be identified and authenticated;

3) responding to said request message by identifying and authenticating said sender computer and determining if said sender computer has a micropayments account and determining if the balance of said micropayments account is adequate for the amount of micropayment to be made;

4) if said sender computer has a micropayments account with a balance adequate for said micropayment, deducting the amount of a micropayment from said account balance;

5) generating an encrypted stemp encoding the amount of the deducted micropayment and sending said encrypted stemp to said sender computer and maintain knowledge of an encryption key used to encrypt said stemp;

6) communicating with recipient computers to assist them in accepting predetermined emails and rejecting other predetermined emails so as to reduce the amount of spam email which is viewed by a user of said recipient computers.

47. The computer readable medium of claim 46 having further computer-executable instructions thereon to control said email micropayments server to also perform the function of transferring value to a recipients micropayments account or the account of another designated by the recipient when a transfer value message is received at said email micropayments server.

48. The computer readable medium of claim 46 having further computer-executable instructions thereon to control said email micropayments server to also perform the functions of:

receiving a transfer value message either from a sender computer or from a recipient computer which has received a transfer value message directly from a sender computer;

authenticating a computer which sent said transfer value message using information in said transfer value message;

transferring value to a recipients micropayments account when a transfer value message is received at said email micropayments server from a computer which has been properly authenticated.

49. The computer readable medium of claim 46 having further computer-executable instructions thereon to control said email micropayments server to also perform the functions of:

receiving at said micropayments server a micropayment value transfer message from a sender computer of a sender of email or from a recipient computer of a recipient of email, said value transfer message being either part of said request message received in step 2 or a separate message;

identifying and authenticating the sender of the value transfer message, sender meaning the person who wishes to transfer a micropayment amount out of his or her account to another user'"'"'s account;

verifying that said sender of said value transfer message has a valid micropayments account with an adequate balance for the transfer;

deducting the transferred amount from said sender'"'"'s account and deposit said transferred amount into said recipient'"'"'s account.

50. The computer readable medium of claim 46 wherein said computer-executable instructions thereon to control said email micropayments server to perform the function of step 5 comprise computer executable instructions to control a computer to execute step 5 by:

generating a key for encrypting said stemp each time a request is received to send back an encrypted stemp;

assigning a unique serial number or identifier to each email which is the subject of a request to send back a stemp;

storing said key along with said serial number or identifier assigned to said email;

sending back said unique serial number or identifier with each encrypted stemp.

51. The computer readable medium of claim 46 wherein said computer-executable instructions thereon to control said email micropayments server to perform the function of step 1 comprise computer executable instructions to control said email micropayments server to execute step 1 by:

receiving a registration message from a process executing on a sender computer of a user desiring to set up a micropayment account for a user;

responding to said registration request message by carrying out a protocol to set up said micropayment account for said user;

responding to said registration message by generating a key in said micropayments server, said key for use in future encryption of all stemps for emails sent to said user of said sender computer which sent said registration message;

storing said key generated for each user in a database of such keys and link said key to said user;

and wherein said computer executable instructions which control said email micropayments server to execute step 2 comprise computer-executable instructions to control said email micropayments server to execute step 2 by;

receiving information about the identity of the recipient on the email which is the subject of said request message received in step 2 and using the recipient'"'"'s identity to look up from said database of keys for each recipient the key that is to be used to encrypt the stemp for said email to be sent to said recipient;

and wherein said computer executable instructions which control said email micropayments server to execute step 5 comprise computer-executable instructions to control said email micropayments server to execute step 5 by;

using the key so found to encrypt the stemp sent to said sender computer for sending to said recipient.

52. The computer readable medium of claim 46 wherein said computer-executable instructions thereon to control said email micropayments server to perform the function of step 1 comprise computer executable instructions to control said email micropayments server to execute step 1 by:

receiving a registration message from a process executing on a sender computer of a user desiring to set up a micropayment account for a user;

responding to said registration request message by carrying out a protocol to set up said micropayment account for said user;

responding to said registration message by generating a key in said micropayments server, said key for use in future encryption of all stemps for emails sent to said user of said sender computer which sent said registration message;

storing said key generated for each user in a database of such keys and link said key to said user; and

send said key back to said computer which sent said registration message for use in decrypting stemps of incoming emails;

and wherein said computer executable instructions which control said email micropayments server to execute step 2 comprise computer-executable instructions to control said email micropayments server to execute step 2 by;

receiving information about the identity of the recipient on the email which is the subject of said request message received in step 2 and using the recipient'"'"'s identity to look up from said database of keys for each recipient the key that is to be used to encrypt the stemp for said email to be sent to said recipient;

and wherein said computer executable instructions which control said email micropayments server to execute step 5 comprise computer-executable instructions to control said email micropayments server to execute step 5 by;

using the key so found to encrypt the stemp sent to said sender computer for sending to said recipient.

54. The computer readable medium of claim 46 wherein said computer-executable instructions thereon to control said email micropayments server to perform the function of step 1 comprise computer executable instructions to control said email micropayments server to execute step 1 by:

after establishing a micropayment account for each user, carrying out communications with each user to establish what each user wants its micropayment threshold to be either in general for all incoming emails or so as to establish different micropayment thresholds for different senders;

and wherein said computer executable instructions which control said email micropayments server to execute step 6 comprise computer-executable instructions to control said email micropayments server to execute step 6 by;

receiving a decrypt stemp request message from a recipient computer which has received an email that has an encrypted stemp, said decrypt stemp message containing data from which said recipient computer can be identified and authenticated and including a serial number or identifier included in said email which was received and including a copy of an encrypted stemp included in an email received by said recipient and including a request to decrypt said stemp;

responding to said decrypt stemp request message by identifying and authenticating said recipient computer using information in said decrypt stemp request message;

if said recipient computer is authentic, looking up the key that was used to encrypt said stemp at a sender computer which sent said email and decrypting said stemp included in the stemp decrypt request message and looking up a micropayment threshold amount for this recipient computer or for this recipient computer based upon the identity of this particular sender;

comparing the decrypted stemp amount to the value of said micropayment threshold; and

sending back to recipient computer a message to said recipient computer indicating whether the micropayment amount is or is not adequate.

55. The computer readable medium of claim 46 wherein said computer-executable instructions thereon to control said email micropayments server to perform the function of step 6 comprise computer executable instructions to control said email micropayments server to execute step 6 by:

receiving a message from a recipient computer that indicates an email with no stemp has been received;

determining the email address of the sender of said email with no stemp;

sending a message to said sender indicating a user of said recipient computer did not view said email with no stemp because of insufficient postage and inviting said sender to establish a micropayments account;

determining if said sender responded with information to establish a valid micropayments account;

if said sender did establish and fund a micropayments account, deducting a micropayment amount adequate to allow said user of said recipient computer to view said email and sending a message to said user of said recipient computer indicating said sender has established a micropayments account and that the email can be viewed;

but if said sender did not establish and fund a micropayments account, sending a message to said recipient computer instructing it to send said email to the trash.

56. The computer readable medium of claim 46 wherein said computer-executable instructions thereon to control said email micropayments server to perform the function of step 6 comprise computer executable instructions to control said email micropayments server to execute step 6 by:

receiving a message from a recipient computer that indicates the receiver process received an email with no stemp;

determining the email address of the sender of said email message, and sending a message to said sender containing a challenge question which only a human viewing the challenge could answer and requesting the user to answer the question and send back a response;

determining if said sender correctly answered said challenge question in a response;

if a correct challenge response was received, sending a message to said recipient computer indicating the sender has correctly answered a challenge question and that the email can be viewed;

if the sender of said email question did not correctly answer said challenge question, sending a message to said recipient computer instructing it to send said email to the trash.

53. The computer readable medium of claim wherein said computer-executable instructions thereon to control said email micropayments server to perform the function of step 6 comprise computer executable instructions to control said email micropayments server to execute step 6 by:

receiving a decrypt stemp request message from a recipient computer which has received an email that has an encrypted stemp, said decrypt stemp message containing data from which said recipient computer can be identified and authenticated and including a serial number or identifier included in said email which was received and including a copy of an encrypted stemp included in an email received by said recipient and including a request to decrypt said stemp;

responding to said decrypt stemp request message by identifying and authenticating said recipient computer using information in said decrypt stemp request message;

if said recipient computer is authentic, looking up the key that was used to encrypt said stemp at a sender computer which sent said email and decrypting said stemp included in the stemp decrypt request message; and

sending back to recipient computer a message to said recipient computer indicating whether the micropayment amount is or is not adequate.