Life is short, have an affair! ... and then get outed by hackers (AshleyMadison hacked)

[Dan Druff]

Porn is very different.

Most guys, even married ones, have a constant need to jerk off, and they like seeing new material to do it to.

So just because you downloaded porn last month, that doesn't mean you're set for life.

It is my assertion that AshleyMadison worked for a VERY SMALL percentage of its users, with the rest running into frustration and epic failure. While a guy might keep renewing his membership for a few months if their bots keep stringing him along, eventually he is going to declare the whole thing a bust and move on.

I don't think there were many members who kept paying for years without having a single affair. Perhaps there were a few gullible idiots who did so, but I doubt all that many.

Most scams rely on a constant stream of new victims, rather than attempting to milk the same ones for years.

[SrslySirius]

That stat is almost certainly false. It doesn't;t even make sense why guys would continue to use the site. Doesn't make sense to me.

Most guys are complete retards when it comes to online dating. They're used to failing. It's super common to bat like .005 on a normal site, which is about 1 real life meeting every 2 months if you spend a lot of time on it. If Ashely Madison was using fake female accounts to string them along, that just fuels the delusion and keeps them around longer.

[simpdog]

That stat is almost certainly false. It doesn't;t even make sense why guys would continue to use the site. Doesn't make sense to me.

Most guys are complete retards when it comes to online dating. They're used to failing. It's super common to bat like .005 on a normal site, which is about 1 real life meeting every 2 months if you spend a lot of time on it. If Ashely Madison was using fake female accounts to string them along, that just fuels the delusion and keeps them around longer.

X100

Anecdotes from friends back this up. They bat a very low percentage.

The only real advantage to online dating is there are girls looking to get laid that night

It's like showing up to a bar at closing time and you can pick one out easily to go home with.

[Dan Druff]

Agree that most guys are retards when it comes to online dating or getting laid.

I made this point in my blog last week: http://toddwitteles.com/blog/?p=27

However, if guys bat .000 after a few months instead of .005, that's a huge difference.

The one batting .005 will keep plugging away, remembering his success (much like a poker fish who remembers a few lucky winning sessions), whereas a guy batting .000 will quit.

This is why I assert that most AshleyMadison customers give up after a few months of failure.

This is also why casinos are careful not to set the odds of their machines to be TOO tight, because they need the gambler to have a few winning sessions to want to regularly come back. (However, over time, they are realizing that they were way too loose in the past, and were leaving way too much potential profit still in the customer's pocket!)

[sonatine]

i used to do online dating in the mid 90s and let me tell you something, i got laid. like, a lot.

[jsearles22]

i used to do online dating in the mid 90s and let me tell you something, i got laid. like, a lot.

Its no surprise that the online dating fag scene is super soft. Im sure your asshole is gaping at this point

[SrslySirius]

I'm not saying that it's hard to meet people or get laid through dating sites. Most people are just too stupid and/or lazy.

[sonatine]

Im sure its virtually impossible now except through Tinder or other hookupware. Just saying back before Craigslist/nerve/etc were 99% spambait, that was the hot pickup scene.

[Dan Druff]

BUMP

Ashley Madison's newly appointed CEO makes a statement:

http://media.ashleymadison.com/avid-...s-its-silence/

Basically they admit they were using bots (only because the FTC is investigating them and will find out soon anyway, plus the hack already revealed it), and that they're really sorry lives were ruined because of their failsite.

What a joke.

Nobody is going to trust this company again.

[Dan Druff]

Look at these fucking scumbags who ran the company.

They would scam people, and then threaten to mail documents "home" (presumably for the spouse to find) when people said they would initiate chargebacks.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/07/08/tech...ill/index.html



Wow.

Basically, dudes would sign up there, immediately get several messages from "women", eventually discover that these women were phony and were actually bots, and demand their money back.

Then they would get threatened with "documents" arriving at their home if they pursued it.

Ashley Madison claims that the current CEO was not involved in this practice and ended it when he took over, but these changes only occurred because the company was hacked, and the hackers threatened to expose all of their shadiness anyway.

I really hope that those responsible for this type of bullshit go to prison and face financial consequences, but I doubt it will.

No matter what their motivation, these hackers were fucking heroes for putting the brakes on this awful scam.

I realize that most of the victims of this scam were scumbag married guys looking to cheat on their wives, but the people running this company were even worse.

[Shizzmoney]

Ashley Madison hits 52 million users - 16 million more - despite massive 2015 cyber hack http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/...yber-hack.html

[Dan Druff]

Ashley Madison hits 52 million users - 16 million more - despite massive 2015 cyber hack http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/...yber-hack.html

I don't believe it.

This is self-reported.

They are likely claiming this so the public has the perception that the storm has passed and they're thriving again.

It's very possible that they really do have 16 million more users -- but most are bots.

They're also trying to claim that the scandal HELPED their business, because it put their name out there.

Um, no.

When the whole point of your site is discretion, a story about hackers exposing the names of the users is a disaster for you. This is one situation where "any publicity is good publicity" doesn't apply.

Notice they are also not claiming the percentage of women who signed up new. Not only are the real figures likely embarrassing, but I think they are afraid to make such claims if most of them are bots, given the various legal situations going on.

They're also probably doing this as a Hail Mary to keep the company alive.

In December, AshleyMadison agreed to a $1.7 million settlement with the FTC and various states (lol), and the government of New York said that they accepted such a low figure because the company is basically broke: http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/14/news...on-settlement/

Fortunately for them, a class action suit is also stalling, because the plaintiffs are required to name themselves: http://fortune.com/2016/04/20/ashley...lawsuit-names/

[Dan Druff]

Good Gizmodo article explaining the Ashley Madison bots: http://gizmodo.com/how-ashley-madiso...-in-1728410265

[sonatine]

Lest we forget, if your community goes viral because its filled with lonely rich gullible men, pretty sure the whole of India and Africa will have 10 accounts per citizen there by nightfall.

[Dan Druff]

Lest we forget, if your community goes viral because its filled with lonely rich gullible men, pretty sure the whole of India and Africa will have 10 accounts per citizen there by nightfall.

Yes, that plus the curiosity factor.

Maybe a lot of people made (junk/unpaid/fake) accounts there just to look at the site, once it hit the news.