Submitted by Mike Grenville on Mon, 24 Jul 2006 10:50

The company behind an 'Anonymous Email' service has applied for a patent for its system that allows subscribers to send anonymous text messages and receive replies.

TheSuggestionBox already operates TheAnonymousEmail.com website that allows emails to be sent untraceable and anonymously. The service is intended to be used for instances such as to complain to someone that they're drinking too much, to alert a school that there is a drug dealer in the area or to tell an employer that someone is stealing at work.

The SMS patent covers TheSuggestionBox's technology that allows text message recipients to reply back to the anonymous sender, and still maintain the sender's anonymity.

The company claims that while there are other companies that have anonymous text messaging for sending, that sender cannot receive a message back from the person they originally text the message too. The system will be available to subscribers in the next few weeks.