# Ashley Madison data breach - You going to check? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 19, 2015, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ashley-madison-data-breach-you-going-to-check/728230 "2015-08-19T00:51:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![lel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8797f3/32.png) [@lel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lel)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2015, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ashley-madison-data-breach-you-going-to-check/728230/81 "2015-08-22T19:56:47Z")
I’m more surprised there are people not checking. ---
**Author:** ![Anamorphic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anamorphic/32/3057_2.png) [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2015, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ashley-madison-data-breach-you-going-to-check/728230/82 "2015-08-22T21:50:25Z")
I checked on myself, out of curiosity. Not because I ever used the site, but because I have a not terribly uncommon first name/last name gmail account, and I get wrong emails all the time. It wouldn’t have surprised me too much if it had been used. Thankfully, it was not on the list. I just started kind of dating someone, but I haven’t checked her, and I won’t. What would it matter? What surprises me most is that people wouldn’t use a disposable email for something like this. Why in the world would anyone sign up with their own main email address for something so potentially incriminating when new email addresses are free and easy to get? ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2015, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ashley-madison-data-breach-you-going-to-check/728230/83 "2015-08-22T23:03:39Z")
> [@j666](#): > > That would require many men to publicly announce both that they intended to be unfaithful and that they couldn’t get a date. Huh? No, all they’d have to do is anonymously review the site and say it’s not legit. There can be single men on that site, so admitting you are a member, on its own, doesn’t say anything about fidelity, there’s not enough information. And what in the world do you mean, “couldn’t get a date”? These men DID think they got a date but were lied to by the very website that promises to make it happen. I see no shame in calling the business out for shady practices. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ashley-madison-data-breach-you-going-to-check/728230/84 "2015-08-23T02:29:35Z")
Nope. I’m in there, too. My wife wouldn’t care, or at least would have no claim for the moral high ground. I didn’t use it. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ashley-madison-data-breach-you-going-to-check/728230/85 "2015-08-23T14:33:26Z")
So i assume this is going to basically kill ashley madison ain’t it? ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ashley-madison-data-breach-you-going-to-check/728230/86 "2015-08-23T15:55:47Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > So i assume this is going to basically kill ashley madison ain’t it? I’d assume so, especially because it turns out that they didn’t delete content even after people paid them to. ---
**Author:** ![April\_R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@April\_R](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/April_R)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ashley-madison-data-breach-you-going-to-check/728230/87 "2015-08-23T18:32:28Z")
I checked yesterday and none of our addresses were used. Now I signed up and subsequently deleted a profile on AM about a week ago, so anyone who has signed up since then won’t show. Something to consider. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ashley-madison-data-breach-you-going-to-check/728230/88 "2015-08-23T22:52:20Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > Huh? No, all they’d have to do is anonymously review the site and say it’s not legit. There can be single men on that site, so admitting you are a member, on its own, doesn’t say anything about fidelity, there’s not enough information. And what in the world do you mean, “couldn’t get a date”? These men DID think they got a date but were lied to by the very website that promises to make it happen. I see no shame in calling the business out for shady practices. Then I don’t know why men using it didn’t complain about it being a scam. Actually, I don’t know that they haven’t … > [@Anamorphic](#): > > I checked on myself, out of curiosity. Not because I ever used the site, but because I have a not terribly uncommon first name/last name gmail account, and I get wrong emails all the time. I was surprised one of my emails didn’t show up; at least half a dozen people have used it, either incorrectly or illicitly, over the years. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2015, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ashley-madison-data-breach-you-going-to-check/728230/89 "2015-08-25T03:22:22Z")
BBC TV just said Ashley Madison is offering a $380,000 reward for information on the hackers. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2015, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ashley-madison-data-breach-you-going-to-check/728230/90 "2015-08-26T19:58:33Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > It seems pretty clear that Ashley Madison was just a big scam. There hardly seem to be any women on it. It reminds me of those 1-900 lines from the 90s where hot women in your area want to talk to you. I wonder if very many people ever had affairs from connections made on their site. I thought this was interesting: [Almost None of the Women in the Ashley Madison Database Ever Used the Site.](http://gizmodo.com/almost-none-of-the-women-in-the-ashley-madison-database-1725558944) A Gizmodo writer did an analysis of the data, and of the few women who signed up, very few actually used it and checked messages or replied to any. So most female profiles were fake, and of the ones made my real women, most weren’t ever used. ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2015, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ashley-madison-data-breach-you-going-to-check/728230/91 "2015-08-26T20:56:30Z")
> [@Sam\_Lowry](#): > > I thought this was interesting: [Almost None of the Women in the Ashley Madison Database Ever Used the Site.](http://gizmodo.com/almost-none-of-the-women-in-the-ashley-madison-database-1725558944) A Gizmodo writer did an analysis of the data, and of the few women who signed up, very few actually used it and checked messages or replied to any. So most female profiles were fake, and of the ones made my real women, most weren’t ever used. Wow. Out of 5.5 million supposed women on the site, tens of thousands are transparently obvious fakes, with internal data giving them addresses like “[100@ashleymadison.com](mailto:100@ashleymadison.com)” and a 127.0.0.1 IP address. There’s only evidence for about 10,000 women who actually interacted with the site by checking their inbox or sending messages, and another 12,000 who paid to have their information “deleted”. (No kidding, the database has a “paid delete” flag on a couple hundred thousand records. I think I can hear the lawyers from here, sharpening their teeth while humming “class action!” to themselves.) The tens of millions of men on the site were communicating with someone, but pretty much none of them were talking to women with normal profiles… So to go back to the OP’s question, there’s pretty much no reason at all for anyone to check whether their wife was on the site. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2015, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ashley-madison-data-breach-you-going-to-check/728230/92 "2015-08-26T21:57:52Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > Does it? Then how has it stayed a (I’d assume) profitable website for all these years? I don’t get it. People would flock to various blogs and websites to cry foul over the deception if they’ve been such an obvious scam for so long. You just string people along. Get them to buy your “digital roses” or whatever to show your affection (and money), they supposedly had paid female posters who could respond to messages, and you just keep from closing the deal. The men don’t know its a scam versus some woman just not putting out. I believe you had to pay to respond to requests and stuff so you could milk money out of someone for a while and give him enough interaction to think that it’s legit, he just didn’t find a connection. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ashley-madison-data-breach-you-going-to-check/728230/93 "2015-08-28T14:25:47Z")
Breaking news just now on BBC TV said the Ashley Madison chief executive was leaving the company. ---
**Author:** ![seal\_cleaner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@seal\_cleaner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seal_cleaner)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ashley-madison-data-breach-you-going-to-check/728230/94 "2015-08-28T15:33:23Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Breaking news just now on BBC TV said the Ashley Madison chief executive was leaving the company. To spend more time with his family? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![April\_R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@April\_R](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/April_R)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ashley-madison-data-breach-you-going-to-check/728230/95 "2015-08-28T17:21:30Z")
> [@Sam\_Lowry](#): > > I thought this was interesting: [Almost None of the Women in the Ashley Madison Database Ever Used the Site.](http://gizmodo.com/almost-none-of-the-women-in-the-ashley-madison-database-1725558944) A Gizmodo writer did an analysis of the data, and of the few women who signed up, very few actually used it and checked messages or replied to any. So most female profiles were fake, and of the ones made my real women, most weren’t ever used. That was my experience ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ashley-madison-data-breach-you-going-to-check/728230/96 "2015-08-28T17:30:34Z")
Not checking. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ashley-madison-data-breach-you-going-to-check/728230.md?page=4)