August 20, 2015

"Radio hosts tell woman live on air her husband had Ashley Madison account."

"We’re putting him into this website right now and his details have revealed that he’s actually on the website, Jo."

65 comments:

madAsHell said...

Another scripted moment.

Expat(ish) said...

I know a woman who caught her husband cheating b/c she came into the airport to use the loo and on her way out she saw him toss what looked like a cell phone into a trash can on his way out the door to meet her at the curb. (Pre 911, obviously)

She fished it out and later found the texts.

Cheating without getting caught is hard.

-XC

PS - NC had "alienation of affection" laws so she took down the "other woman" during the divorce and got a sizable judgement.

sinz52 said...

It would be even more fun to find a married couple where the husband and wife each had their own Ashley Madison accounts.

Brando said...

I've got no special sympathy for adulterers (though who knows what is going on in any individual's marriage or what arrangement they may have with their spouse, so I'm not judging either) but this hack should be disturbing to all of us. Self-styled moralists deciding to hack and release people's personal information was just as bad when hackers released celebrity nude photos that were private.

After all, as the saying goes I didn't speak up when they came for the adulterers because I wasn't an adulterer, and when they came for me no one was left to speak up.

Brando said...

"It would be even more fun to find a married couple where the husband and wife each had their own Ashley Madison accounts."

It'd be like the Pina Colada song!

Freeman Hunt said...

This seems like the first major data hack with huge effects on the lives of many regular people. Banking problems are generally handled by the banks, but even banking problems that result in big headaches don't cut to the heart of life. This does. I wonder how much turmoil there will be by the time this all shakes out.

Freeman Hunt said...

The data goes all the way back to 2007, so there are certainly going to be a number of married people in it who had affairs, repented, and turned things around. Now their problems from years ago are public.

tim in vermont said...

But don't worry, Google has a new wi fi router and they promise they won't save any of the well, basically every byte you get off of the internet passes through your wi fi router, but they promise they won't be any eviler than they have to be to get insanely richer. Google's honor.

Anonymous said...

A$$hole. Not the Husband, but the radio guy who punished the wife live to get ratings. Just like the TV A$$holes who stick mikes in front of mothers who have learned of a dead child and inquire about their thoughts...

MayBee said...

If people would be strong and not look at the data, future hackers would be dissuaded from doing something similar.

Just because Ashely Madison clients are pretty disgusting, we shouldn't revel in the pain brought on by hackers.

john said...

Really Drill Sgt? The wife calls a radio talk show and publically voices her suspicion that her hubby is extracurricular boinking, and provides names for them to look up? Poor woman.

madashell is right.

Matt Sablan said...

Drill SGT: It appears she asked, they answered: "Breakfast radio hosts Fitzy and Wippa put a call out on Thursday morning for any female listeners who suspected their partner might be cheating. The Nova FM hosts offered to find out if the suspected person was registered with Ashley Madison by checking their email address against the data released by hackers this week."

I assume that they didn't think they'd actually get a caller who actually had a cheating husband [note that they weren't looking for husbands curious about cheating wives!]

rehajm said...

Does having an Ashey Madison account = having an affair? I mean it's not like someone would use an alias and a procured email account, but still..

Matt Sablan said...

I'll admit, from what I read before going to the source, I imagined they cold-called someone, like with the War of the Roses thing, where jocks pretending to be a flower company call a guy and tell him that he won a dozen roses to see where he sends them.

Matt Sablan said...

"I mean it's not like someone would use an alias and a procured email account."

-- People are really, really dumb. Like, some people have their .mil and .gov accounts on there dumb. I'm pretty sure that there are plenty of John and Jane Does paying through a pre-paid debit card. But, the vast majority of people are going to have trusted a company that they should not have.

Laslo Spatula said...

I don't understand why someone would bother with an Ashley Madison account when there are so many Starbucks around with young baristas who wouldn't mind earning a little extra spending money.

I am Laslo.

Ann Althouse said...

"Self-styled moralists deciding to hack and release people's personal information..."

I don't think these hackers were motivated by morality. Their issue was (I believe) that Ashley Madison was promising security and taking money from people for it and the security was not there. The hack was to prove that the promise was false.

Ann Althouse said...

"It would be even more fun to find a married couple where the husband and wife each had their own Ashley Madison accounts."

Yeah, that's a story on the level of "The Gift of the Magi."

Ann Althouse said...

"“Find yourself in here?” they said in a statement posted with the data dump. "It was [Avid Life Media] that failed you and lied to you. Prosecute them and claim damages. Then move on with your life. Learn your lesson and make amends. Embarrassing now, but you’ll get over it.""

Matt Sablan said...

That's a kind of morality, but not the kind we normally associate with "self-styled moralists."

JSD said...

Like most things on the internet, Ashley Madison is just another scam. The members are desperate old men and the women are imaginary but it costs real money to talk to them. Men would be better off buying a lap dance. It’s less expensive and you won’t get laid, but at least there’s some actual ass grinding going on.

Brando said...

"I don't think these hackers were motivated by morality. Their issue was (I believe) that Ashley Madison was promising security and taking money from people for it and the security was not there. The hack was to prove that the promise was false."

But I was under the impression that they also hacked AM's sister sites, and didn't release the names of the ones on the "cougars looking for men" sites. That to me implies that this is really about embarrassing the sort of men who go on this site (and it is almost all men).

Brando said...

"Does having an Ashey Madison account = having an affair? I mean it's not like someone would use an alias and a procured email account, but still.."

I'm guessing most of them are curious, but that very little of it results in affairs--the vast majority of accounts are men (though perhaps there's a handful of women having affairs with multiple men).

I think if I ever got it into my head to cheat, the last thing I'd do is use a web service (especially one where I have to give real info like a credit card account) as it leaves a trail.

MayBee said...

"It would be even more fun to find a married couple where the husband and wife each had their own Ashley Madison accounts."

They like Piña Coladas, and getting caught in the rain.

Freeman Hunt said...

Does having an Ashey Madison account = having an affair? I mean it's not like someone would use an alias and a procured email account, but still..

The data tells whether or not the email address was verified. (And the simple email checkers that have popped up provide this information.) The bigger data set also includes what the person purchased, the name on the credit card, the address, and details of what the person was looking for.

Matt Sablan said...

"Does having an Ashey Madison account = having an affair?"

-- Possibly not. But if I were married, I certainly wouldn't be looking forward to having a go at making that particular point to the Mrs.

damikesc said...

I've got no special sympathy for adulterers (though who knows what is going on in any individual's marriage or what arrangement they may have with their spouse, so I'm not judging either) but this hack should be disturbing to all of us. Self-styled moralists deciding to hack and release people's personal information was just as bad when hackers released celebrity nude photos that were private.

Indeed. And those pale in comparison to what happened to the former Clippers owner.

Even people who are pretty bad deserve protections.

If people would be strong and not look at the data, future hackers would be dissuaded from doing something similar.

I haven't cause it's none of my business. Adultery is bad, but is an issue for that husband and that wife. Social media turning into the most pious scolds in history is a poor development.

I don't think these hackers were motivated by morality. Their issue was (I believe) that Ashley Madison was promising security and taking money from people for it and the security was not there. The hack was to prove that the promise was false.

They also mentioned the usage of fake female accounts (apparently, there really are very, very few women on the site)

Thorley Winston said...

"It would be even more fun to find a married couple where the husband and wife each had their own Ashley Madison accounts."

Only if each time they tried to find their perfect match, they kept finding each other ;)

Larry J said...

Matthew Sablan said...
Drill SGT: It appears she asked, they answered: "Breakfast radio hosts Fitzy and Wippa put a call out on Thursday morning for any female listeners who suspected their partner might be cheating. The Nova FM hosts offered to find out if the suspected person was registered with Ashley Madison by checking their email address against the data released by hackers this week."


Don't ask the question if you don't want to know the answer.

wildswan said...

This couple had two children. What happened to them when their mother was devastated like this? And their father shamed? Is there a site for a set of new parents?

Thorley Winston said...

If people would be strong and not look at the data, future hackers would be dissuaded from doing something similar.

If the intent is to dissuade future hackers then take away their anonymity. Publish their names, photographs and addresses along with the websites or institutions they’ve hacked and announce that the police will not be responding to any 911 calls from that address for 48 hours.


rhhardin said...

Keep your man happy, might be a lesson.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Brando said...

I've got no special sympathy for adulterers (though who knows what is going on in any individual's marriage or what arrangement they may have with their spouse, so I'm not judging either)...

I have a huge amount of sympathy for any man or woman who is dealing with a sexually unsatisfying marriage. I have absolutely no sympathy for anyone who cheats. Period. Forsaking all others, til death do you part. That is what you signed up for, independent of what is going on in your marriage, or what kind of arrangement you have with your spouse.

And yes, I am judging.

JD said...

Josh Duggar reportedly had two Ashley Madison accounts

mikee said...

Josh Duggar's name appeared on two Ashley Madison accounts. Why two, unless at least one was done by someone else to defame him? Maybe both?

I, for one, recall that Nixon and Carter had stories printed about their personal subscriptions to all the naughty magazines of their day, regularly delivered to the White House. Cancelling subscriptions resulted in their reinstatement the next month, presumably by the same people who ordered them in the first place.

Mean people do mean things to other people.

cubanbob said...

Wait until some hackers start getting killed. Sooner or later its going to happen. I doubt few will grieve dead hackers.

bearzero said...

How does this reaction compare to the "outing" of gay men by the media?

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

The character of Jimmy Barrett was pretty interesting on Mad Men. He was an insult comic who lacked self-control. After insulting two VIPs, the best apology he could muster was a half-assed explanation: "This career of mine has made me a lot of money but it hasn't made me a very nice person." (From memory.)

I do my level best to identify nasty people and ignore them. You reward something, you get more of it. And nastiness is contagious.

Judging from the prevalence of people in show business like these radio hosts, there must be a great many people out there who don't see things my way.

Peter said...

Yes, it's surely best not to ask a question if you don't want to hear the answer.

William said...

I'm sure that both Dem and Republican operatives are checking this out for useful information. The more unscrupulous operatives are probably manufacturing useful information.......If I were God, I'd put adulterers and these hackers in exactly the same circle in hell and give them all eternity to discuss the comparative morality of their positions. The political operatives, of course, deserve a much lower circle.

SeanF said...

If I was a certain type of person, I'd put up a website that purports to be an "Ashley Madison e-mail check" site, and just randomly return positives for some entries and negatives for others.

I'd also keep a list of all the e-mail addresses that were entered onto my site for checking, and sell that list to spammers.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

@mikee

The fact that there were two accounts makes me skeptical as well, but they have other information that link the accounts to Duggar.

From the Gawker story:

A credit card in Duggar's name was used to pay for at least one of two memberships

The credit card's billing address matched his grandmother's Fayetteville, Arkansas home, where the reality show often shot.

One of the accounts was opened in July 2014 and was linked to his home in Oxon Hill, Maryland.

The two accounts in Duggar's name overlapped by a few months and were active from February 2013 to May 2015.


Of course anyone could have opened an account linking it to those addresses. But a credit card with a billing address at his grandmother's suggests he didn't want his wife to see that bill.


jimbino said...

Too bad SCOTUS didn't have the option of abolishing civil marriage altogether; it would have done USSA denizens a great favor, though nothing for the Aussies.

Barry Dauphin said...

Maybe the hackers can find Hillary's emails.

jeff said...

Wait a minute, my wife told me Ashley Madison was a designer clothing store for women.

Jason said...

What kind of a self-appointed goddamned Robespierreian prick do you have to be to dig through these archives looking for individuals who bear no connection to you? Whether it's Duggar or anybody else?

This just in: People are human.

traditionalguy said...

Nobody wants to ask the most pressing question of the day: Are Adulterers born that way so they can never become anything else, or can an intervention able to help them overcome a terrible genetic mandate to be the way they were born sexually???

Larry J said...

bearzero said...
How does this reaction compare to the "outing" of gay men by the media?


It depends. The press seems to enjoy whenever a Republican is outed.

tim in vermont said...

How many of them will be hearing from all manner of Nigerian princes in the near future?

Or emails like, "Thanks for taking the IQ test: You flunked."

Freeman Hunt said...

Wow, journalists must be busy today. They had time to out the Duggar guy, but they haven't had time to come up with anyone else since.

Matt Sablan said...

I imagine a LOT of deals are being struck in editorial offices everywhere.

Imagine being an editor who used Ashley Madison, and someone saying "We should crowd source the Ashley Madison leak to our readers!"

Fun times ahead.

MayBee said...

Freeman- hahahaha!

Lewis Wetzel said...

So I've been looking at the financials for ashleymadison, aka "Avid Dating Life Inc." Revenue was 113 million in 2014, up from 25 million in 2010. It was founded by an ex sports lawyer/agent named Biderman (Biderman is still CEO). The company is privately owned. It is run out of Canada. In 2014 they said they had 37 million users. That seems outrageously high to me. North America has, what, maybe 500 million people? And one out of thirteen is an ashleymadison subscriber? C'mon.

tim in vermont said...

If that is the real number, that would be seriously depressing to me. I weep for my country.

But I did used to get a kick out of those ads they would run on Fox News claiming to be against this horrible site that was helping men have affairs! Of course they never failed to mention the name.

Lewis Wetzel said...

I've been doing a little more research. A story in the IBT says that the FBI is working on the theory that it was inside job (current or past associate or employee). Apparently one of the messages from the hackers referred to a past ashleymadison CTO by his first name. Ashleymadison charged people to delete their data "permanently", and that seems to have been fraudulent (they can't delete records of credit card transactions).
I bet that like many "dating" sites, this was a way to connect prostitutes and johns, and all parties knew it when they signed up for the service.

JD said...

Josh Duggar admits to infidelity and Ashley Madison accounts.

Lewis Wetzel said...

JD, the Duggar confession kind of works towards proving my point. Duggar wasn't looking for a discrete affair, he was looking for a hooker to give him a blowjob. The "extra-marital affair" play act gives a user a reason to require discretion. The founder of ashleymadison, Biderman, says that he got the idea when he was lawyer for sports figures and he saw how they managed their affairs. I have a feeling that the athletes Biderman knew about were hooking up with pricey escorts rather than having an affair.

Manny said...

anyone who uses the info to out others is either a hypocrite or an idiot. gawker and the vile sorts that read it are not friends of liberty or class. everyone deserves to suffer the consequences of their behavior in as private a manner as possible since God himself does not publish misdeeds in the sky for all to read.

Freeman Hunt said...

I think people who supported causes Duggar championed have a right to be pretty ticked off. He acted like a spokesman for morality while doing this at the same time, and he's turned their causes into punchlines.

Annie said...

I understand there were quite a few 'users' in the White House. Funny how we know all about Duggar, but nothing about them.

Larry J said...

Annie said...
I understand there were quite a few 'users' in the White House. Funny how we know all about Duggar, but nothing about them.


Funny? Not in a ha-ha sort of way, of course. We all know that if any of those White House accounts trace back to the Bush '43 administration, we'll hear all about it, but I don't suggest holding your breath waiting from anything about accounts from the Obama administration. For that matter, there are reports of many accounts from within Congress. It isn't hard to guess whose will be outed and whose will be covered up.

John Althouse Cohen said...

Does having an Ashey Madison account = having an affair? I mean it's not like someone would use an alias and a procured email account...

Even if having an AM account meant having an affair, having an email address show up in this hack wouldn't mean having an AM account. My email address (which starts with my first and last name) is often mistakenly used by other John Cohens for things I have nothing to do with. Although I never used the website, I still checked to make sure my email address wasn't revealed in the hack. After all, the site didn't use any email verification. And how do we know the data are even accurate?

Manny said...

..."It isn't hard to guess whose[account] will be outed and whose will be covered up."

as far as mainstream media, apart from corporate self interest, I'm not sure what sort of mechanism would be in place that determines who gets outed based on ideology. it seems to me that anyone well known, regardless of political or ideological leanings, absent some internal corporate "protection" or other compelling interest, will eventually have their name put on a placard and marched about by the hypocritical pitch fork and torch crowd.

Manny said...

i always have the suspicion that these sorts of things are shadows on the cave wall sort of events...that the concrete real world motivations behind the "hack" look very different indeed and the information generated by the leak is an ancillary matter.

jr565 said...

sinz wrote:
It would be even more fun to find a married couple where the husband and wife each had their own Ashley Madison accounts

Funnest would be if they each had an ashley madison account and were talking to each other about having an affair. Then they meet up and realize they were talking to each other. It's like You've got mail, only with infidelity.