Hackers release all Data from Ashley Madison Dating site. Verdict: Juicy

[Paelos]

The tools thing seems easy to notice if you're paying attention, because at some point there's thousands of dollars of no tools not lying around. But anyway.

Were I doing something similar, I'd simply just use a card on an account that provides cash back at certain normal looking locations like gas stations or grocery stores to mask the money.

[Ironwood]

This is starting to sound like an OJ book, my little monkey.

[HaemishM]

See, all that work to get around the wife finding out about affairs? Even if I were ever so inclined to cheat, that much work just to get my rocks off with some strange is simply way more effort than the resulting orgasms are worth.

[Paelos]

This is starting to sound like an OJ book, my little monkey.

You probably don't want to know what we have to learn about hiding money in order to pass a forensic audit class.

Think like Defense Against the Dark Arts, and we're learning the dark arts.

[Ironwood]

I'm very much aware.  You keep forgetting that the reason I have contempt for accountants is my 21 years working with them way back.  Also, marrying one. 

But I couldn't resist a good OJ joke.

[WayAbvPar]

This is still my favorite OJ joke. And also pretty much everything Norm McDonald said about him on Weekend Update for about 2 straight years 

[Samprimary]

Diddler Duggar has now owned up to being unfaithful. But he made sure to throw in wordage that suggests that he's mostly just sad that he got caught

[Trippy]

And it was also the Devil's fault.

[Merusk]

The tools thing seems easy to notice if you're paying attention, because at some point there's thousands of dollars of no tools not lying around. But anyway.

That's the part I never understood about the story either.  I didn't want to call her out on her sister being an idiot or so disconnected from her husband that she didn't notice.  I suppose once a couple is at the affair stage the second is a given anyway?

See, all that work to get around the wife finding out about affairs? Even if I were ever so inclined to cheat, that much work just to get my rocks off with some strange is simply way more effort than the resulting orgasms are worth.

Your mistake is assuming affairs are typically about getting your rocks off.   They're about unhappiness, dissatisfaction and trying to fill a void of some sort. I've spoken with and read enough from people over the tears to really pity most of them more than despise them.  Sure there's some scumbags who just want to sleep around - male and female.

However most just seem rooted in an inability to talk to the other party. Either because they won't talk back, the offender is too scared or simply nobody wants to admit to the unhappiness.

Also I can't say I'll ever think harshly of someone who has an affair when they're in a dead bedroom situation. However I realize part of that is my own need for physical not just proximal intimacy.

[Signe]

If you cheat, you're a dick.  You do something with what you have, whether that's finishing your marriage/relationship for good or trying to fix it, but you do that first.  If you ever loved your partner at all, you wouldn't do that to them.  Being cheated on is horrible.  And it has nothing to do with sex except to the shallow prick who cheats. 

 

[Lantyssa]

/micdrop

[Paelos]

If you cheat, you're a dick.  You do something with what you have, whether that's finishing your marriage/relationship for good or trying to fix it, but you do that first.  If you ever loved your partner at all, you wouldn't do that to them.  Being cheated on is horrible.  And it has nothing to do with sex except to the shallow prick who cheats. 

Truth. Have the balls to just end it on decent terms if the pull of cheating is so strong you're going to act on it. But people don't want to do that. They want the security of their fallback in addition to having their fun, because they are selfish assholes.

[Margalis]

Why would anyone sign up for this using a work email address?

If I were to sign up for a site like this I would be sure to use a non-work account. 

[Ironwood]

Because your wife will never see your work e-mail.

Sure, it's stupid thinking, but the danger with this is not the workplace fury, it's the spouse fury.

[Sir T]

People conduct affairs in via work Email all the time, to the amusement of network managers.

In any case its turning more serious as blackmail attempts have started.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/the-blackmail-of-ashley-madison-users-has-already-begun/ar-BBlXLTH

On Tuesday, a huge trove of data stolen from the extra-marital affairs website's servers was leaked online. As well as confidential internal documents, this included user data on the site's 32 million users. The info ranges from email addresses and financial details to physical descriptions and detailed sexual preferences.

According to multiple media reports on Friday, blackmailers have started trawling the database, widely available online, in an attempt to extort the users on it.

Bitcoin news outlet CoinDesk was sent an email from a reader who apparently had an account on Ashley Madison. The reader had received an email from a would-be blackmailer called "Team GrayFlay" threatening to expose them unless they sent the extorter some bitcoins.

Here's the part of the message they received:

U.S. dollars are counted out by a banker at a bank in Westminster, Colorado November 3, 2009. REUTERS/Rick Wilking© Provided by Business Insider Inc U.S. dollars are counted out by a banker at a bank in Westminster, Colorado November 3, 2009. REUTERS/Rick Wilking Unfortunately your data was leaked in the recent hacking of Ashley Madison and I now have your information. If you would like to prevent me from finding and sharing this information with your significant other send exactly 2.00000054 bitcoins (approx. value $450 USD) to the following address…

Meanwhile, New Zealand publication Stuff.co.nz is reporting that an Auckland man has also received a blackmail demand from Team GrayFlay. "Consider how expensive a divorce lawyer is," the blackmailer wrote. "If you are no longer in a committed relationship then think about how this will affect your social standing amongst family and friends."

These may be the first blackmail attempts, but they are highly unlikely to be the only ones. The user info dump is fairly easy to find online, meaning that countless amoral opportunists are bound to try and take advantage of it in the weeks and months ahead.

After all: If Team GrayFlay (or any other blackmailer, for that matter) emailed all 32 million account holders, and just 0.01% of them agreed to pay up the $450 (£288) ransom, it would still earn them $1.4 million dollars (£0.9 million).

As unpleasant as this financial blackmail may be, it's not the worst aspect of the hack. The dump also contains around 15,000 US military and governmental email addresses. Many are definitely fake (users are not required to verify their email address upon signing up), but it's clear there are thousands of users with sensitive jobs that have been compromised by the leak.

Intelligence agencies are probably already "digging" through the data and considering how it can be used to leverage the individuals named within it, one cybersecurity executive told The Hill.

[Ironwood]

I don't get it, the information is out there.  What's the incentive to pay ??

[Sir T]

Yes its out there in a huge data dump. Shame if someone were to point out to your spouse that your name is among the millions of users of the site, along with all your paymend info and how long you used it and when. Its not like your spouse would trawl through the database themselves

[Ironwood]

You guys clearly have trusting wives.  Mine was through that website in seconds.   

[Pennilenko]

I already have one woman in my life that I can barely handle, even the idea of cheating wears me out.

[Ghambit]

If you cheat, you're a dick.  You do something with what you have, whether that's finishing your marriage/relationship for good or trying to fix it, but you do that first.  If you ever loved your partner at all, you wouldn't do that to them.  Being cheated on is horrible.  And it has nothing to do with sex except to the shallow prick who cheats. 

 

You are assuming one is even able to finish a marriage/relationship.  Many times people aren't in the position of ending anything short of just leaving everything behind and running for the hills.  It takes two to end a relationship.  If one refuses to comply in any way (especially if it's the woman), then the relationship pretty much isn't ended.

Then there's the fact a great many relationships are completely co-dependent (see:  America).   The dependent person could feel trapped, and cheat to break out emotionally while maintaining their support.  The provider may cheat because he genuinely cares for the dependent's well-being and won't end things outright due to some sense of twisted chivalry - he after-all, is her "everything" but he still needs an emotional release from the rollercoaster.

If you're in a toxic marriage with children and both refuse to end things because marriage with children...  very rarely do people actually "talk it out" and go polyamorous.   They will cheat if they're able.  If they're not able, that generally means they're already a dick/bitch, have a social disorder, and/or they look like Quasimodo on a bad hair day.  It's rarely because "I'm just above all that." 

[Lantyssa]

Here's a hand grenade with the pin pulled.  Hold on to it just in case the minefield doesn't get you.

[Ghambit]

Toss grenade into minefield.
I play the percentages and the percentages are in my favor.  Not sayin it doesn't suck, it does, but human nature is sucky.

What are we at now, near 70% divorce rate?  The vast majority of those involve some sort of infidelity if not simply at the tail end of an already ending relationship.
And even before considering marriage, most people who end relationships rarely do-so without at least having some kind of fallback.  Even if they haven't slept with them. 

[apocrypha]

We can't choose who we fall in love with. Being in love with one person doesn't mean you can't fall in love with someone else at the same time. Poly-amorous relationships are real, but they're not easy and rely on openness and honesty.

Signing up to Ashley Madison to specifically look for an illicit, anonymous affair is the direct opposite of openness and honesty. As is Ashley Madison faking female profiles to better attract male clients.

I suppose my view on the whole thing is pretty much ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Khaldun]

Actually the divorce rate is falling, along with the fact that substantial numbers of folks are never getting married at all. Especially true for college-educated folks in the middle-class and above--their divorce rate is now much lower than it was twenty years ago.

I don't really have much interest in judging people abstractly. I've seen folks cheat where it was enormously damaging and awful, where the cheater was essentially consciously trying to hurt their partner. And I've seen people cheat where it was the kind of thing where all the parties involved sort of knew and sort of were ok with it and simply didn't want to talk about it too much. I think it's the kind of thing that doesn't make any sense to judge independently of the circumstances.

[Lantyssa]

What are we at now, near 70% divorce rate?  The vast majority of those involve some sort of infidelity if not simply at the tail end of an already ending relationship.

And those people are dicks.

[Ghambit]

What are we at now, near 70% divorce rate?  The vast majority of those involve some sort of infidelity if not simply at the tail end of an already ending relationship.

And those people are dicks.

I guess that's why we hate people then.   

[Fraeg]

Given all the high profile cases of businesses getting hacked like, oh I don't know Sony comes to mind.  The idea of putting your info into a site with the sole purpose of cheating on your significant other is just mind blowing.   


was it a fucked thing to do? sure, yes absolutely... is that business model absolute slime, yes. 

at the end of the day:  I laughed my ass off

[stray]

Some Captain/cop from my city killed himself from this list. I heard a preacher in Lousiana did too.


There's gotta be more stories like this.

[jgsugden]

Some Captain/cop from my city killed himself from this list. I heard a preacher in Lousiana did too.

There's gotta be more stories like this.

There are.  I'm more interested in the stories that will come out where someone is killed by another because they appeared on this list.  I have not heard any stories of that, yet, but there are people in countries that can be executed for trying to engage in the behavior they are listed as wanting in their profiles...

[ajax34i]

So there is absolute trust that the list has been published with no modifications whatsoever.  If you're on the list you really did have a profile, and the hackers haven't added or changed anything.  It's on the internet so it must be true, and all that.

[HaemishM]

Strangely enough, I believe the hackers more than the company which seems to have up and created fembots to lure male customers into spending more money.

[jgsugden]

While it remains possible that a hacker might have inserted a single acquaintances name (or deleted one), I doubt the majority of the list is faked in any way.  Why go through the trouble to manipulate a list of strangers and give the company a means to discredit the list?  If there were a lot of fake names and people could prove they were fake, the entire exercise would be discredited. 

This was an extortion game.  The hackers need potential victims to know that the threats of revealing information are real.  Their best interests are served by screwing unpaying victims with evidence that people will believe, especially when there is massive media coverage.  So, yes, ajax34i, we do trust that it was you on Ashley Madison seeking the affection of goats.

[stray]

Strangely enough, I believe the hackers more than the company which seems to have up and created fembots to lure male customers into spending more money.

The site runners were also in the process of creating some lame Gambling app as well.. and it was leaked in emails on how overt the scam was. Sounded like Bernie Madoff shit..

They're not to be trusted.

[jgsugden]

...
The site runners were also in the process of creating some lame Gambling app as well.. and it was leaked in emails on how overt the scam was. Sounded like Bernie Madoff shit..

They're not to be trusted.

Again - why would they go through the trouble of putting real people into their systems that were not really customers?  And stealing their financial info to add to their systems?  And if they did, wouldn't some of those people noticed they were being billed?  It makes no sense.  Anyone that was on the list as a registered user with financial info that is/was a real person was a customer. 

[stray]

...
The site runners were also in the process of creating some lame Gambling app as well.. and it was leaked in emails on how overt the scam was. Sounded like Bernie Madoff shit..

They're not to be trusted.

Again - why would they go through the trouble of putting real people into their systems that were not really customers?  And stealing their financial info to add to their systems?  And if they did, wouldn't some of those people noticed they were being billed?  It makes no sense.  Anyone that was on the list as a registered user with financial info that is/was a real person was a customer. 

Wait.. I'm in agreement with you. Did I come off like I wasn't?

I'm just saying the owners as sleazy (to point out the obvious).