Abstract: The present invention provides a method and apparatus for determining whether a party initiating a telephone call is on a list of parties authorized by the called party. If the calling party is not on the list of authorized parties, a fee is charged to the calling party. All or a portion of this fee may be paid to the called party or may be applied to the called party's telephone service billing account to reduce the called party's telephone bill. Preferably, the present invention is implemented at the called party's central office, i.e., at the central office which services the called party. In accordance with common-channel signaling, commonly referred to as signaling system 7 (SS7), the calling party's telephone number and identity are received in the call signaling data transmitted to the central office which services the called party.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for determining whether a party sending an email communication is on a list of parties authorized by the intended receiving party. If the sending party is not on the list of authorized parties, a fee is charged to the sending party in return for the message being provided to the intended receiving party, or if the sending party has not authorized such fees to be charged, the message is simply discarded. Preferably, the present invention is implemented with Internet communications. However, the present invention can be used in private networks as well, such as local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs). Preferably, the present invention is implemented at the intended receiving party's ISP. In accordance with the well known Transmission Control Protocol/internet Protocol (TCP/IP), the destination address of the intended receiving party and the source address the sending party are contained in the IP message, commonly referred to as a datagram.