Anonymous email service Leak suspends service, is working on its own email backend

After going live less than two weeks ago, Leak, the anonymous emailing site, has suspended service citing issues with email providers MailChimp and SendGrid.

The emails sent from Leak through the email services were not opt-in, a violation of both companies’ terms of service. Leak looked like it was spamming people. The last thing either email company wants is someone using its service to send messages to people they didn’t ask for.

Co-Founder Laurent Desserrey told TNW, “Seb and I didn’t expect that people would be sending that many leaks over the week. It’s actually a good issue.” A good issue that is also pushing the team to take charge of their own backend.

Leak’s co-founder Sébastien Thiriet blames the site’s success on being flagged my MailChimp’s API, Mandrill. It probably didn’t help matters that they posted Leak on Product Hunt where the tech elite and tech press quickly picked it up. Soon they were sending 10 anonymous emails a second.

The co-founders both “totally understand” the reaction from Mandrill and SendGrid and they are currently building their own dedicated email server with specific features needed by their service.

No word on when the site will return and when you can restart sending anonymous emails to friends, families and co-workers. Until then, it’s back to subtweets.

➤ Why we are forced to suspend Leak… for a while [Leak]

Image credit: Shutterstock