10 Scandalous Things The Ashley Madison Hack Revealed About Cheating
The data breach had to be good for something, right?
weheartit By Korin Miller
As you've likely heard at this point, Ashley Madison, the website that calls itself “the most famous name in infidelity and married dating," has been hacked. So now seven years’ worth of data from it is searchable online—and people have been having a field day with it.
New findings and scandals keep on coming: 19 Kids and Counting star Josh Duggar admitted to using the site to have an affair, and other public figures, like Sam from the semi-notorious viral video couple, Sam and Nia, have been called out for being on it, too.
But individual cheating a-holes users aside, we learned a lot about extramarital affairs from the leak. Here are the biggest (and creepiest) findings:
1. A Crapload of People Cheat (Or Want To Cheat)
More than 32 million people were registered for the site.
2. Cheating Doesn’t "Just Happen"
The Ashley Madison scandal throws a serious wrench in the old excuse that an affair “just happened.” A person with an Ashley Madison account planned to have an affair—and actually paid money to do it. So while we're not saying this line is never legit, it's clearly not in many cases.
3. People Who Stray Are Sneaky, Sneaky Bastards
The vast majority of Ashley Madison clients use a webmail address, Forbes reports—presumably to hide their true identity and keep their spouse from seeing any Ashley Madison e-mails. Some used pre-paid credit cards to help preserve their ID. (So you’re probably not going to find anything incriminating if you searched your partner’s e-mail account or credit card statement…not that you would, of course.)
4. Tons of People Cheat On the Job
Hundreds of U.S. government employees, including staffers from the White House, Congress, and law-enforcement agencies, accessed and paid for their accounts from work, The Associated Press reports.
5. Cheating Is Considered a Crime in the Military
The military is “looking into” service members’ use of the site after more than 15,000 government e-mails were included in the leaked data. Adultery can be a criminal offense under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the AP reports.
6. You’re Not a Bad Person If You Look to See If Your Partner's Got a Wandering Eye
…But you might have trust issues if you're checking the list, psychiatrist Gail Saltz, M.D., told Yahoo Health.
7. Even Family Men Cheat
Outspoken conservative family values proponent Josh Duggar says he’s a “total hypocrite” after he was caught using the site to cheat. No argument here.
8. Religion Doesn’t Exempt People
Josh isn’t the only religious person on Ashley Madison; Forbes found three accounts using Vatican.com e-mail addresses.
9. There Are a Lot of Cheaters In Alabama (Maybe)
Data scientist Jake Popham made a graph of where Ashley Madison cheaters live. The winner: Alabama. But it’s worth pointing out that Alabama is the first state in a dropdown menu (and so might be the easiest choice for people lying about their location), so second runner-up Colorado could be the real winner.
10. This Probably Won’t Cause As Many Divorces As You’d Think
The majority of people stay with a cheating partner, experts told Yahoo Health.