ASHLEY MADISON HACKING: WHAT HAPPENED WHEN MARRIED MAN WAS EXPOSED
Back in August 2015, the ‘dating’ site Ashley Madison was hacked, exposing married cheaters the planet over.
We acknowledged 86 per cent of the site’s users were men, Sao Paulo had the foremost registered users of any city and it’s mainly employed by rich, powerful men.
But what became of the marriages of the guilty parties, whose secret infidelity was suddenly not-so-secret at all?
One man who was exposed within the hacking has now spoken out about what happened to him in a piece of writing for the LA Times.
Ashley Madison hack reveals its 37 million users sexual fantasies
Rick Thomas was 56 when he joined Ashley Madison. He’d been married for 19 years, and although he’d been faithful to his wife the entire time, the thrill in their relationship had fizzled:
“Call it a midlife crisis, poor judgment or a cheater’s heart. Whatever it had been , I easily found fault in my marriage. Intimacy was long gone. Our focus was on making a living and raising kids. We had not taken a vacation without children in years.”
Thomas retired from his corporate job early, bought a Harley Davidson and got a tattoo - thus far , so midlife crisis. on the other hand he found Ashley Madison and was so enticed he signed up.
Whether the timing was good or bad for Thomas is hospitable debate, as fortnight after joining the location , it had been hacked.
He’d yet to require any relationship offline, but he was in trouble.
- Maidenhead
- Livingston
- Farnborough
- Loughborough
Whilst several high-profile members of the location were revealed to the general public , Thomas was blackmailed and began receiving emails from a hacker who called himself Mr X:
“I have all the knowledge about your online affairs and even the cheatings you probably did ... i'm getting to send messages to all or any of your friends and relations . Wondering the way to prevent me from doing this?”
Mr X demanded Thomas pay him $1,000 in bitcoins by a deadline.
“How much is your marriage, standing in your community, and reputation at work worth to you? Your countdown has started,” Mr X threatened.
Thomas decided he wouldn’t ante up but would come clean to his wife.
“Why did you are doing it?” she asked.
Ashley Madison has 4 million new members despite hack
Thomas couldn’t give her a true reason though: “I hemmed and hawed, but just couldn’t dance round the incontrovertible fact that I took the primary step of introducing infidelity into our marriage.”
He begged, groveled for forgiveness, promised to stay faithful, suggested counselling and told her he loved her.
“My wife just shook her head and walked out the front entrance ,” leaving Thomas to believe everything he could be close to lose - he’d seen the 50th anniversaries of his parents, grandparents and even great-grandparents.
“My family is close-knit. Their marriages go the space ,” he says.
His wife didn’t walk out forever though - she came back early subsequent morning and suggested Thomas book a meeting with a wedding counselor.
The couple stayed together, and Thomas even writes that he appreciated the hackers’ timing: “I suppose I even have Mr. X to thank,” he says.
Hundreds of Nepali's outed on Ashley Madison. This is just a small subset of the data. All names have been blurred for privacy purposes.