A system and method for increasing message transaction costs is disclosed. One basic embodiment of the method includes the elements of: receiving over a data link a request to route a message to a recipient address; calculating a delay period, in response to the request; dropping the data link; receiving over the data link a next request to route a message to a recipient address; dropping the data link, if the next request was received during the delay period; and routing the message referenced in the next request to the recipient address, if the delay period has expired. The system of the present invention, includes all means for implementing the method.