The Ashley Madison drama continues for another day, with Avid Life Media putting out a new statement claiming there were nearly 90,000 women who joined Ashley Madison last week alone. While Avid Life Media is holding on for dear life and saying that Ashley Madison is far from dead, Ashley Madison users who have had their names hacked and exposed are more concerned with new threats popping up online on Pastebin and other sites, claiming that their spouses will be notified soon if they don’t perform some action.
“Ashley Madison blacklists of users which partners will be informed about affairs, this lists include emails, phone numbers, names and full addresses of AM users …”
Most of these threats are assumed to be false blackmail attempts, with astute and fearful Ashley Madison users wondering how the blackmailers will find their spouses in the first place. Reports of the files containing gobbledygook or worse – such as malware – instead of the list of Ashley Madison spouses abound. However, with all the online tools that allow for folks to pay for background checks and familial information, partners could be found by those heartless and foolish enough to risk jail for extortion and blackmail attempts. Those threatened with blackmail should report it to the police , says News.com.au .
As reported by AL.com , attorney Brad Green cautions spouses about running out and finding divorce lawyers after finding their mates’ information on a supposed Ashley Madison list, because the list could be fake to begin with.
“Before someone runs out to see a divorce lawyer they really need to think about where this data came from, the fact that it may not be verifiable and the fact that it may not be evidence that someone really was using this site.”
Although Green claims that Ashley Madison lists aren’t the type of data that can be admissible in court as evidence, one can clearly think back to the many instances whereby Facebook has been used to prove crimes and other court-related matters. Green says, however, that in the state of Alabama, a physical adulterous relationship would have to be proven, not a mere email address and name on an Ashley Madison list.
“No one is going to be able to properly introduce a page of this data into court. It’s hearsay. It’s unverifiable. You’re not going to be able to subpoena the hacker into court to authenticate this information. You’re not going to be able to bring in Ashley Madison to verify hacked information that someone put together.”
Despite the lawyer’s claims about court, he does admit that the Ashley Madison leaked list of names is new ground for divorce lawyers.
[Image via Ashley Madison]