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back to article Ashley Madison hack miscreants may have earned $6,400 from leak

Some blackmail attempts against victims of the ongoing Ashley Madison saga resulted in several – albeit modest – pay outs, according to new research. Extortionists seized on the data dump of the cheaters’ website database last month with demands to pay up, or risk having their friends and family told about their dalliances, as …

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  1. zen1

    What?!?

    That's it? Not well thought out or executed. For the uproar (number of destroyed relationships, lives and suicides) this has caused, $6400 certainly isn't worth it. Not to sound cold but that's like robbing a gas station, shooting the clerk and getting away with less than $10.00. I hope God has pity on them because if they get caught, and hauled into jail, their cell mates probably won't..

    On the other side of the coin, I think AM needs to set up a trust fund for any impending civil suits otherwise their company will be no more. And it's a damn shame that the executive "management" of the company can't be held personally liable for such a gross act of incompetence.

    4 2 Reply
    1. Daniel B.
      Reply Icon
      Boffin

      Re: What?!?

      I'm betting it wasn't even the "Impact Team" the one blackmailing people. Anyone who grabbed the AM dump could have done it. Of course, anyone paying would be simply stupid as the info is already out there and thus, available to everyone. The "epic dump" was released on August 16; anyone paying after that date (or asking for blackmail money) is just wasting their time ... or their money.

      4 0 Reply
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: What?!?

      Why the surprise?

      Finance house CEO's book huge salaries, commissions and bonuses even though they caused a global meltdown.

      Police forces can shoot unarmed citizens, lie about it and get away (literally) with murder.

      Heads of the CIA, NSA and others lie to Congress under oath. Congress lies to it's citizens daily,

      Presidents Bush and Obama have nothing to fear from causing a half million deaths worldwide (and increasing daily.)

      Welcome to the world of zero accountability for those with power.

      6 6 Reply
    3. Swarthy
      Reply Icon

      Re: What?!?

      This is more like another guy walks into the gas station and, upon finding the corpse of the clerk, rummages through their pockets for loose change.

      5 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: What?!?

        Grim subject aside this gives me a chance to use one of my favorite quotes from TV I don't often get.

        Coroner: Bundy, you seem like a nice guy so I'll give you a little advice. Don't die with your jewelry on.

        0 0 Reply
  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "I hope God has pity on them because if they get caught,"

    Strange how the $Deity character never seems to be around when the shit hits the fan... we can only presume he's trying to cover up his AM account details.

    8 1 Reply
  3. sisk

    So then someone out there still thinks BitCoin is a secure way to anonymize themselves....not so much. You can't launder money through BC. The money trail is too easy to follow with published block chains. These extortionists are in trouble unless they just let those BitCoins sit there untouched.

    0 0 Reply
    1. Brangdon
      Reply Icon

      You can launder Bitcoin by buying digital stuff online through TOR, or by using a mixing service, or by selling them to someone in the street. People can follow the money until it reaches someone identifiable in the real world, but that person won't be you and there will be cut-offs between you and them, if you are doing it right.

      In general, people don't check whether coins they are receiving were involved in a threat; they don't care and arguably they shouldn't care. The key word here is fungible. Just as with cash, the history of the coins shouldn't matter.

      1 0 Reply
      1. sisk
        Reply Icon

        TOR I'll give you, but I'd trust the mixing services about as far as I could throw them and I think most people would be highly suspicious if someone on the street offered to sell them Bitcoin.

        0 0 Reply
  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Flawed anal ysis?

    "All the scam emails consistently demanded “exactly 1.05” BTC from their victims...."

    No they don't. Another is asking for 1.15 bitcoins.

    More anal ysis please

    0 0 Reply
  5. Pascal Monett Silver badge
    Facepalm

    So they want to be paid in funny (and traceable) money ?

    Multiple people having their names on this most famous list were contacted and Bitcoin payment demanded.

    So that means that, had my name been on that list and had I received such a demand (and were I stupid enough to not realize that it's way too late to hide now), I would have had to go and buy a bitcoin because I don't have any and no intention of dipping into that particular pond either.

    Talk about a roundabout way of doing things.

    0 0 Reply
  6. Adam Inistrator

    64k?

    sure it wasnt 65535?

    0 0 Reply
  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Livin' large.......

    Wow, a whole 2 months rent in Silicon Valley (utilities not included).

    0 0 Reply

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