Slashdot Mirror
Ashley Madison Blackmail Letter Revealed (grahamcluley.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Security researcher Graham Cluley says he has been forwarded a blackmail letter, sent to a member of the controversial Ashley Madison adultery website. In the letter the blackmailer says that unless $2,000 worth of bitcoin is paid within 10 days, the recipient's wife, friends and colleagues will be informed of his misdemeanors. In a threatening twist, the letter goes on to give personal details of another victim who refused to pay the blackmailers, and how his personal life and work were targeted as a result. Cluley's advice to recipients is not to pay the blackmailers, but to tell the U.S. Postal Inspectors Service.
I would wager that the kind of person who couldn't cheat without a web site couldn't cheat with Ashley Madison even if it wasn't a complete fraud, either.
They're probably not attractive or charismatic enough to attract a partner to begin with.
Marriage is just a pre-packaged contract between two people, with standard terms [...] the terms are well advertised and understood [...] in most developed nations it more or less objectively is [fair]
Oh, hell, no. It's a pre-packaged contract, but the terms are anything but well-advertised or understood, and it's blatantly unfair in many cases. You say an oath, which isn't binding, and sign a piece of paper, which is - despite the paper containing no description of the terms of the contract. The terms also change over time: divorces and marital disputes are judged by the family law of today, not what it was when the couple got married. In some jurisdictions you can even find yourself bound by the contract after cohabiting with a partner for a year, without even being aware that the contract exists.
If engaged couples were presented with a full description of the standard terms and conditions of marriage, including the clauses regarding division of assets on divorce, half of them wouldn't get married. Which is why this should happen, because those marriages are unfair to the people who aren't aware of the terms; and why it won't happen, because society likes people to be married.