Ashley Madison Users Report Extortion: More Lawsuits Filed

The damage caused by the Ashley Madison leak is growing, and some former users are reporting that others have attempted to extort them using information contained in the data dumps. Eight individuals residing in the United States have filed lawsuits against the infidelity website, and the service is facing similar legal action from users in Canada. The lawsuits cite a host of reasons for the legal action: violations of privacy, breach of contract, negligence, and more.

According to the Associated Press, the U.S. lawsuits have been filed in Texas, California, Minnesota, Tennessee, Missouri, and Georgia. All eight of them are seeking class-action status, and would as such represent about 37 million affected Ashley Madison users.

One such user resides in Los Angeles; his lawsuit was filed on Friday, and states in part that "this dumping of sensitive personal and financial information is bound to have catastrophic effects on the lives of the website's users." These lawsuits join existing cases brought against the company, including one in Canada seeking $578 million and class-action status.

Yesterday, law enforcement officials in Canada stated the hack has resulted in extortion crimes; no further details on that were provided, however, including whether they were successful. In addition, the hack is said to have resulted in two suicides, but that remains unconfirmed at this time.

SOURCE: US News & World Report