A system and method for permitting a sender to provide electronic mail (email) to a recipient, said method comprising providing a recipient email address to the sender; requesting of the recipient that the sender be allowed to send email to the recipient; determining whether the request is acceptable based on at least one of: 1) a sender identity verification method; 2) user input; and 3) third party information; adding the sender to an email access list if the request is acceptable; and wherein the email access is used to determine whether or not email from the sender is permitted to reach the recipient.