[Ransom]Ashley Madison customers are Paying over 100k in bitcoin to Hackers.

[everaja]

Millions of Ashley Madison customers had their personal information leaked in a hack of the site, and now blackmailers are making big money using the data.

The Register reports that researchers have been able to track payments online that were sent using the virtual currency bitcoin.

Cloudmark analyst Toshiro Nishimura looked into bitcoin addresses that were included in emails sent to victims of the Ashley Madison hack. Blackmailers have been contacting users of the site promising to remove their data from the internet, or threatening to send it to their relatives or colleagues.

If you know a bitcoin address then it’s possible to track payments sent over the internet to it. Nishimura found several bitcoin addresses that were being used by blackmailers to seek payment. He was able to track payments to the addresses, and found 67 different transactions which indicate that Ashley Madison customers paid around $US6,400 to scammers.

Toronto Police held a press conference in August to outline the investigation into the Ashley Madison hack. During the press conference police showed an example of one of the blackmail emails received by an Ashley Madison customer.

Source:Internet link: http://www.businessinsider.com.au/ashley-madison-customers-sending-money-to-blackmailers-2015-9

[manselr]

The irony is, this all could have been avoided if Ashley Madison used Bitcoin to accept payments instead of the outdated credit card system which due it's centralized nature requires that ALL data is stored, all credit card movements + information is on their databases. So I hope they learned the lesson and next time they buy some Bitcoin.

[CPNpr]

I do not feel sorry for the Ashley Madison customers. How stupid. Regards to the hackers, good job! Once again it have proven how unsafe things are and Bitcoin has shown another time how to be used for criminals.

[S4VV4S]

The irony is, this all could have been avoided if Ashley Madison used Bitcoin to accept payments instead of the outdated credit card system which due it's centralized nature requires that ALL data is stored, all credit card movements + information is on their databases. So I hope they learned the lesson and next time they buy some Bitcoin.

That is not true.
Credit Card processing does NOT require all customer data being stored on the stores website.
Credit card processing requires some vital customer info for payment processing but that data need be not stored afterwards.

However, I do agree with you that using Bitcoin would have made things a little more private for their customers.

[CPNpr]

The irony is, this all could have been avoided if Ashley Madison used Bitcoin to accept payments instead of the outdated credit card system which due it's centralized nature requires that ALL data is stored, all credit card movements + information is on their databases. So I hope they learned the lesson and next time they buy some Bitcoin.

That is not true.
Credit Card processing does NOT require all customer data being stored on the stores website.
Credit card processing requires some vital customer info for payment processing but that data need be not stored afterwards.

However, I do agree with you that using Bitcoin would have made things a little more private for their customers.

Indeed private for the criminals now, haha ...

[jonald_fyookball]

I do not feel sorry for the Ashley Madison customers. How stupid. Regards to the hackers, good job! Once again it have proven how unsafe things are and Bitcoin has shown another time how to be used for criminals.

I disagree. I think there's a special place in hell for the hackers who would try to extort people like that.

[CPNpr]

I do not feel sorry for the Ashley Madison customers. How stupid. Regards to the hackers, good job! Once again it have proven how unsafe things are and Bitcoin has shown another time how to be used for criminals.

I disagree. I think there's a special place in hell for the hackers who would try to extort people like that.

Yeah ... next place to the cheating Ashley Madison customers,

[unamis76]

People dancing on the rain tend to get wet. Too bad. hackers always see a way to profit...

[Lauda]

I do not feel sorry for the Ashley Madison customers. How stupid. Regards to the hackers, good job! Once again it have proven how unsafe things are and Bitcoin has shown another time how to be used for criminals.

I'm not sure that you should be feeling sorry for cheaters. Karma has struck them hard. A ransom like this is always taught because there is no guarantee that the hacker will not keep asking for money. This reminds me of CryptoLocker, where they made off with around $3M. I do not feel sorry for such people at all. Practically with the information dump, anyone who is familiar with Bitcoin and privacy could extort money from these people. I've seen some examples online.

That is not true.
Credit Card processing does NOT require all customer data being stored on the stores website.
Credit card processing requires some vital customer info for payment processing but that data need be not stored afterwards.

However, I do agree with you that using Bitcoin would have made things a little more private for their customers.

You're partially right. The number of companies that do not store data is minimum. The benefits of Bitcoin should be obvious in cases like these.

I disagree. I think there's a special place in hell for the hackers who would try to extort people like that.

So you support cheating? Interesting.

[S4VV4S]

The irony is, this all could have been avoided if Ashley Madison used Bitcoin to accept payments instead of the outdated credit card system which due it's centralized nature requires that ALL data is stored, all credit card movements + information is on their databases. So I hope they learned the lesson and next time they buy some Bitcoin.

That is not true.
Credit Card processing does NOT require all customer data being stored on the stores website.
Credit card processing requires some vital customer info for payment processing but that data need be not stored afterwards.

However, I do agree with you that using Bitcoin would have made things a little more private for their customers.

Indeed private for the criminals now, haha ...

On the contrary, those addresses will be on many peoples (and agencies) radar now.

[lumeire]

The thing is, this would be bad press for bitcoin. Silk road and such are still fresh.

[CPNpr]

The thing is, this would be bad press for bitcoin. Silk road and such are still fresh.

Again and will not the last.

[S4VV4S]

I do not feel sorry for the Ashley Madison customers. How stupid. Regards to the hackers, good job! Once again it have proven how unsafe things are and Bitcoin has shown another time how to be used for criminals.

I'm not sure that you should be feeling sorry for cheaters. Karma has struck them hard. A ransom like this is always taught because there is no guarantee that the hacker will not keep asking for money. This reminds me of CryptoLocker, where they made off with around $3M. I do not feel sorry for such people at all. Practically with the information dump, anyone who is familiar with Bitcoin and privacy could extort money from these people. I've seen some examples online.

That is not true.
Credit Card processing does NOT require all customer data being stored on the stores website.
Credit card processing requires some vital customer info for payment processing but that data need be not stored afterwards.

However, I do agree with you that using Bitcoin would have made things a little more private for their customers.

You're partially right. The number of companies that do not store data is minimum. The benefits of Bitcoin should be obvious in cases like these.

I disagree. I think there's a special place in hell for the hackers who would try to extort people like that.

So you support cheating? Interesting.

That is true.
Aparently they store that data for ease of use (so you don't have to re-input it the next time).
I find that an accident incident waitting to happen...

[bryant.coleman]

Has anyone noticed the eerie resemblance to the recent crypto-locker ransomware scam? Even the ransom amount seems to be the same. For me, it seems like some of the guys behind the crypto-locker scam are behind this new scandal (the FBI claims that they shut down Crypto-locker in 2014, and arrested almost all of its masterminds).

[jonald_fyookball]

I disagree. I think there's a special place in hell for the hackers who would try to extort people like that.

So you support cheating? Interesting.

Please don't put words in my mouth.  Two wrongs don't make a right, and I think infidelity is far less malicious than blackmail.

[Bitfundit]

You are asking for trouble anytime you link a website facilitating cheating/adulterous Liasions and your Facebook acc, Duh! 😐🔫

Stupid people, you reap what you sow......

[nutildah]

Not very original at all. I give the extorter a C+.

If I were a "victim" of the hack, I would definitely not give in to any of these blackmailers. What's to stop a flood of other would-be blackmailers from doing the exact same thing? Nothing. Customers who have been targeted because they are wealthy or well-known will likely continue facing this same scenario for months or even years to come.

Frankly I don't know how people can live with themselves wasting their lifetime in such an evil and destructive fashion.

I downloaded the entire database and identified the ex-mayor of my hometown plus a few ex-NFL players that live where I live, but I'm not going to attempt to extort them because I am just not that pathetic.

[ebliever]

And the irony is, all these poor guys didn't have affairs. They just wound up chatting with Ashley Madison sockpuppets on the site. (Analysis of the hack data shows virtually zero real female activity at the site, but tens of thousands of sockpuppet accounts. So almost no one was having a real affair, but they are paying for it now.)

On a more serious note, I hope a lot of people find healing after all the hurt. There's a new movie out, I haven't seen it but from the descriptions it sounds almost tailor-made for the people caught up in this situation. So if that includes any readers, please check it out. http://warroomthemovie.com/

[Mickeyb]

The irony is, this all could have been avoided if Ashley Madison used Bitcoin to accept payments instead of the outdated credit card system which due it's centralized nature requires that ALL data is stored, all credit card movements + information is on their databases. So I hope they learned the lesson and next time they buy some Bitcoin.

Exactly this. But don't worry, it won't be too long before a site like this emerges or before even some existing "conventional" website doesn't change their systems. They just need to watch and learn on what is actually happening.

About this ransom: This is actually amazing how another use case has found itself in the liberal, un-governed system. This news, even if somebody might see it as negative will bring a lot of good to Bitcoin.

[Bitfundit]

And the irony is, all these poor guys didn't have affairs. They just wound up chatting with Ashley Madison sockpuppets on the site. (Analysis of the hack data shows virtually zero real female activity at the site, but tens of thousands of sockpuppet accounts. So almost no one was having a real affair, but they are paying for it now.)

True that! ⬆️⬆️⬆️

Lol It's not like any of these numpties actually got to bang the hot exec chick pictured on the website, they just purchased to opportunity to get exposed as a cheater, sad.