# But I never even HAD an Ashley Madison account!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-i-never-even-had-an-ashley-madison-account/733987
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [October 9, 2015, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-i-never-even-had-an-ashley-madison-account/733987 "2015-10-09T01:57:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2015, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-i-never-even-had-an-ashley-madison-account/733987/21 "2015-10-09T16:06:14Z")
My sister got one of these. She ignored it. Nobody’s spammed her Facebook so far.
It’s a brilliant scam, really. Your hit rate has to be maybe 1 in 10,000 and you’re rich. Hell, it doesn’t even matter if you got the email address from the leak. Maybe the address wasn’t even in the leak. Some people are suckers.
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### Author:  [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2015, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-i-never-even-had-an-ashley-madison-account/733987/22 "2015-10-09T16:42:33Z")
That’s pretty much how it is with any spam. Until there’s some cost structure that makes ultra-high-volume-e-mails unfeasible unless a real profit will result, that fact will remain true.
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### Author:  [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2015, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-i-never-even-had-an-ashley-madison-account/733987/23 "2015-10-09T18:17:48Z")
WOW–Thank you for posting this! I learned a lot!
You see, folks…you’re all missing the point. This isn’t a blackmail attempt.
It’s an educational\* email, explaining how to buy a bitcoin.
So----Ignorance Fought, in the best spirit of the Dope. !
And I sugggest that, as a reward, we offer the spammers a _really_ valuable prize: a special deal— A reduced price for membership here at the Dope.
The regular fee is a thousand dollars, right? But we’ll give it to them, if they respond within 48 hours—for only $500.
They can pay in bitcoins, of course. 🙂
* * *
\*Seriously! I’ve heard of bitcoin; but till I read this, I had no idea how to actually buy one. But now I know.
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### Author:  [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2015, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-i-never-even-had-an-ashley-madison-account/733987/24 "2015-10-09T18:46:18Z")
> [@chappachula](#):
>
> WOW–Thank you for posting this! I learned a lot!
>
> You see, folks…you’re all missing the point. This isn’t a blackmail attempt.
> It’s an educational\* email, explaining how to buy a bitcoin.
> So----Ignorance Fought, in the best spirit of the Dope. !
> .
You are assuming, of course, the the blackmailer is instructing you to send a Moneygram (which may be picked up by anyone in the world who knows the serial number) to a reputable purveyor of bitcoins.
(I have no idea if they are.)
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### Author:  [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2015, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-i-never-even-had-an-ashley-madison-account/733987/25 "2015-10-09T18:57:16Z")
It looks like AM has given up pretending that there are a lot of women on the site:
Warning: NSFW
[https://downlow.ashleymadison.com/](https://downlow.ashleymadison.com/)
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### Author:  [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2015, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-i-never-even-had-an-ashley-madison-account/733987/26 "2015-10-10T03:27:52Z")
I wonder how many bitcoins they got Josh Duggar for?
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2015, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-i-never-even-had-an-ashley-madison-account/733987/27 "2015-10-10T05:37:35Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#):
>
> It looks like AM has given up pretending that there are a lot of women on the site:
>
> Warning: NSFW
>
> [https://downlow.ashleymadison.com/](https://downlow.ashleymadison.com/)
Ick! Don’t they know that sucking off a dude who smokes a _cigar_ is like sucking off an ash tray?
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### Author:  [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2015, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-i-never-even-had-an-ashley-madison-account/733987/28 "2015-10-10T11:13:04Z")
> [@Death\_of\_Rats](#):
>
> To make it even worse, since we all discovered that there were no women on AM, this just targets guys who signed up to a site to NOT be able to cheat!
Note that more evidence emerged that there were in fact a significant number of women on AM. It was a popular and successful dating site for gay women.
They didn’t show up in the initial count, because they weren’t getting spammed by fake women, which (it turns out) was what the original count was counting.
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### Author:  [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2015, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-i-never-even-had-an-ashley-madison-account/733987/29 "2015-10-12T06:58:40Z")
> [@simster](#):
>
> best part of the scam is- if anyone pays, they know they have a live one - a real live one thta actually wants to hide something.
>
> (having never used BC, I assume they can track the email address of the payer)
> [@grude](#):
>
> No they cannot, unless you leave it as a comment in the blockchain.
> [@mistymage](#):
>
> Then… how would the scammer know you paid them? Or is $470 enough per dupe?
You can generate as many Bitcoin addresses as you want. So, presumably, the scammer is putting a unique address in every email, and they’ll know who paid if any of those addresses gets money.
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### Author:  [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2015, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-i-never-even-had-an-ashley-madison-account/733987/30 "2015-10-12T12:32:40Z")
> [@Senegoid](#):
>
> Ick! Don’t they know that sucking off a dude who smokes a _cigar_ is like sucking off an ash tray?
I think that you should tell them in just those words… and then tell us what they say.
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