At least two individuals reportedly residing in Canada appeared to have committed suicide following disclosure that they were among the millions of subscribers to Ashley Madison, an extramarital dating website whose private accounts were hacked and publicly exposed recently.
Toronto police are now warning people of the "ripple effect" that might lead to people scamming or extorting users of the website just so they can avoid exposure of their infidelity.
Toronto Police Acting Staff Superintendent Bryce Evans said some of the website's 37 million users—who included US government officials, UK civil servants, and workers at European and North American corporations—have reportedly become the subjects of extortion attempts, with at least two of them apparently resorting to taking their own lives, according to Charisma News.
Evans refused to divulge further details about the apparent suicides as he underscored the "social impact" behind the hacking. "We're talking about families. We're talking about their children, we're talking about their wives, we're talking about their male partners," he said. "It's going to have impacts on their lives. We're now going to have hate crimes that are a result of this. There are so many things that are happening. The reality is, this is not the fun and games that has been portrayed."
At the same time, Evans warned the hackers of the Ashley Madison website, known as the "Impact Team," saying that their actions are "illegal" and "will not be tolerated."
"This is your wake-up call," he told them during a news conference. "To the hacking community who engage in discussions on the dark web and who no doubt have information that could assist this investigation, we're also appealing to you to do the right thing. You know the Impact Team has crossed the line. Do the right thing and reach out to us."
Avid Life Media Inc., the parent company of Ashley Madison, is offering a C$500,000 (or around $379,132) reward to catch the hackers.
