A server receives a message from a sender and transmits the message to a recipient. The server normally transmits the message in a first path to the recipient. When the sender indicates at a particular position in the message that the message is registered, the server transmits the message in a second path to the recipient. The sender can also provide additional indications in the message to have the server handle the message in other special ways not normally provided by the server. After learning from the recipient or the recipient's agent that the message was successfully received, the server creates, and forwards to the sender, an electronic receipt. The receipt includes at least one, and preferably all, of the message and any attachments, a delivery success/failure table listing the receipts, and the receipt times, of the message by the recipient's specific agents, and the failure of other agents of the recipient to receive the message and a an encrypted hash of the message and attachments subsequently. By verifying that the digital signature on the sender's receipt matches the digital receipt at the server, the server can verify, without retaining the message, that the receipt is genuine and that the message is accurate.