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.

Comments

this is blackmail?

[zephvark]

>unless $2000 worth of bitcoin is not paid

...I'm pretty sure he can afford to go ahead and not pay it, then. They apparently offered to screw him over only if he paid.

Don't Pay

[Infiniti2000]

They will continue to blackmail you. Why wouldn't they when so successful the first time? It's not like they're trustworthy or anything. If you're stupid enough to get involved with Ashley Madison in the first place, then just fess up to your wife and family and deal with the consequences. But, in the end, most of us will have no sympathy for either the scumbags who use Ashley Madison or those who blackmail them.

Sounds like he's bluffing to me.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's interesting that in the letter, the blackmailer provides no information about the recipient apart from his name and address. He lists all of the information about his prior victim, but my guess is that it's all part of his ruse. I suspect that the websites are fake and the phone number is a line straight to the blackmailer, who will corroborate the story whenever any of the many recipients of his letters call.

This requires more money to set up than an email, but the blackmailer knows that ``The wicked flee when no man pursueth."

Amature Night

[JBMcB]

You don't send blackmail letters IN THE MAIL.

This is now a federal crime, and the post office inspectors office, and probably the FBI, gets involved. Since this is in the news, they will probably be very interested in this case, as well.

Re:You want to cheat on your wife?

[gstoddart]

This is one of the few cases where I don't support the activities of any party involved; the hackers for what they did, the website for providing/promoting such blatant infidelity, nor the people who use the site.

Meh, people have been screwing around on one another for as long as they've had one another.

Putting aside the underlying puritanical bullshit, who broke the law here? Yes, that's right, the hackers and the extortionists. Wah wah wah, people have affairs and they'e evil people .. such moralizing bullshit. Neither Ashley Madison nor the people using the site broke any laws.

And I've long since stopped thinking the opinion of a bunch of hand-wringing church ladies is of any consequence. It's just people acting like they have authority over what others do. People who think infidelity will stop due to their own loud self-righteousness ... well, just as often those assholes find themselves getting caught doing the same fucking thing.

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone, otherwise shut the fuck up. It's disgusting that you feel your opinion about what people you don't know is worth a damn, or that it has anything to do with you.

Oh, wait, is your entire morality based on retribution against strangers because you feel they deserve it? That's not a fucking morality, that's being a self-righteous ass.

What next, wanting us stoned for idolatry? Go stone yourself.

Re:You want to cheat on your wife?

[Anonymous Coward]

You are saying this was primarily marketed to closet gays in sub-Saharan Africa?

I think he's confusing the terms "blackmail" and "black male".

Re: You want to cheat on your wife?

[AmiMoJo]

You can have all that. Simply don't get married, instead offer your partner a contract, or just agree to live together and share stuff as long as it suits you.

Marriage is just a pre-packaged contract between two people, with standard terms. They are popular because they are cheaper than getting a custom contract drawn up, and if there is a dispute it's generally cheaper and easier to resolve because the courts are well versed in the terms. It's better for people who are not lawyers too, because the terms are well advertised and understood, unlike a contract full of legalese.

Unfortunately for you, many people are not willing to accept custom relationship contracts. Marriage is perceived as basically fair, and in most developed nations it more or less objectively is, so any desire to avoid those terms is seen as a desire for one side to benefit at the expense of the other.