Original subtitles

[insects chirping]

[tense music]

BROOKE: It was really late at night.

I had the urge to check his phone.

And then it was all just right there.

I barely had to do any digging at all.

It was an inbox...

On Ashley Madison, and there was,

like, a dozen female names there.

My husband was saying that, essentially,

he was in a tough spot with his marriage,

and he wasn't looking for anything serious or emotional.

He just wanted a sexual connection.

And then he would immediately

go into sexual language with them.

I could not believe what I was seeing.

It took me, like, looking at things, the messages,

over and over and over again, and rereading them

over and over and over again to convince myself

that this was happening.

[dramatic music]

MAN 1: When the story initially broke

it looked really bad.

And then it only got worse.

NEWS ANCHOR: We're gonna turn next tonight to new fallout

over the Ashley Madison hacking scandal.

MAN 2: I think this was Ashley Madison's

worst nightmare, absolutely.

MAN 3: The CEO of this company,

he's having a rough week, we'll say that.

MAN 4: Members, of course, have secrets

but the company has secrets as well.

REPORTER: Ashley Madison is still operational.

Experts wonder for how long.

[inquisitive music]

JEREMY: In August 2015, I was at my desk at work,

and I heard Ashley Madison had had their database hacked,

and I was fascinated.

This is enormous.

The thing about being a data scientist

is that I'm a truth seeker.

And I wanted to understand

exactly what was going on in Ashley Madison.

One of the things the Impact Team wrote was,

"Keep in mind the site is a scam.

"With thousands of fake female profiles,

see the Ashley Madison fake profile lawsuit."

And that turns everyone's attention

to a lawsuit that was filed two years earlier in 2013

about exactly that issue.

When Miss Silva came to me and the kind of claim

that she wanted to bring was extraordinary.

Nothing like I'd ever encountered

in my practice before.

An employee of Ashley Madison was suing the company.

Alleging that she had gotten repetitive stress injuries,

and quite significant ones

because she had been made to type out

a lot of fake profiles.

PAUL: She had to use her imagination

to come up with these allegedly fake identities

of various women, 1,000 of them.

People were paying money joining this website.

And if Miss Silva was right

they were being misled to believe that

there were a lot more women there than there really were.

Doriana was seeking $20 million approximately.

She felt that the company had unfairly made a lot of money

at her expense, and that she just couldn't work anymore.

PAUL: And that was filed with the courts,

and it was provided to Ashley Madison.

And one of the first things that they did is,

they hired their own lawyers,

who then, on behalf of Ashley Madison,

sought to strike out the very use of the word fake.

PAOLA: To me, the fact that they wanted

those words removed is actually

what drew more attention to the case.

As part of their response to Doriana's lawsuit,

Ashley Madison wanted to counter a lot of her claims.

They basically said throughout this time

that she's been off work,

she has done things such as jet skiing.

And despite saying that she is no longer able to type,

she has had a very active presence on social media.

The Doriana lawsuit was dismissed.

And I really regret that I didn't get to see

all of these people called to the stand

and made to say things under oath

because that would have been really good.

But we learn later after the hack

that Doriana was probably telling the truth

about the fake profiles.

JEREMY: The thing with a hack is,

you never quite know what you're gonna get.

When I downloaded and unpacked all of the information,

I just was astonished at what I'd got.

I'm sitting at my desk, looking at an inbox.

But it's not my inbox.

It's the email of the CEO

of Ashley Madison, Noel Biderman.

3 and 1/2 years' worth, and nearly 200,000 of them.

And there's all sorts in there.

"After a long week of work, cold beer is now here."

Very nice.

An email headed up,

"Re: Stripper looking for work."

Then he's responded,

"At least Friday beer time

would be more lively, smiley face."

I'm looking at an email telling him

that his Maserati has arrived.

Must have been doing well.

So Noel writes to three employees

asking for an update on a subject

which he calls photo exchange.

And he gets a response from one of his very senior executives.

"Hey, Noel, we took the script and process

"that was successful in the creation

"of over 10,000 profiles in under 2 weeks--"

a major success story.

"We are moving as fast as we can.

"This is a huge and delicate undertaking

that is the foundation of what our site runs on."

An admission.

An admission, both that they were creating fake profiles,

and that they could do it at an industrial scale.

I went through the whole of Noel's email cache,

and I came across an Ashley Madison video

on how to make fake profiles.

What I'm looking at is an Ashley Madison employee

repurposing someone else's profile into a Japanese woman

and engage her, a fake human being.

I mean, it's all different women

of different races and ages.

JEREMY: Sexual preferences, personality,

the whole thing in just a few moments.

And some of the descriptions--

"My limits are anything goes.

"I seek something discreet, short term,

"with someone who is educated.

I have a PhD."

[laughing]

Sure.

And is 5'8", by the way. [laughs]

It's a supermodel.

Oh, my goodness!

"I am a pretty woman and enjoy pleasing a man in many ways.

I love to laugh and have fun."

It tells you something about, I guess,

human nature and loneliness and what people are looking for

that they're not finding in their own home.

JEREMY: They got people all over the world

to make these things.

A couple of minutes is all it's taking

to create a profile that's going to con some poor man

into parting with his money.

MARVIN: I had a photo, and my nickname was Marvelous.

Ashley Madison, although it was primarily

for people looking to have affairs,

I heard that there are other people

in the swingers lifestyle that were using the site as well.

I was going through hundreds of profiles from women

all over the East Coast.

I would put together an introductory note

to tell them I'm a fun person

to consider for their adventures.

Initially, it was dry.

I was questioning whether I should waste any more money.

SUNNY: The one problem with a fake profile is that

while you can message that person,

they cannot message you in return.

It says in those emails that the fake profile

doesn't speak back.

Only a real female can reply

to a male's custom message.

SUNNY: And so how does Ashley Madison

make more money?

Because the business model

is in the constant messaging.

This question led to a whole new initiative

that took Ashley Madison deeper into the mire.

One day, all of a sudden, I had five or six messages.

I was excited.

It definitely made me feel good because I thought,

"There is someone out there

"that thinks I'm attractive or has an interest.

Maybe this will work."

The messages were very short.

They did not mention me by my nickname.

They just said, hello, you know,

I caught your profile,

and I think I might be interested in meeting you.

I was taken aback because I thought,

you know, it'd be impossible for five different people

to write the same message.

It just felt like they weren't real people.

[dramatic music]

Ashley and Madison weren't even real.

WOMAN 1: Many of the women on the site

were actually bots, computerized programs.

That means many customers were paying to chat

with robots, not real women.

CLAIRE: This bombshell comes out

that some of the female users

had signs of being some form of chat bot.

This proves the guys were doing nothing wrong.

There was no cheating happening.

[laughter]

Out of the millions of people who joined

there may have only been eight actual women,

but those chicks were ready to go.

[laughter]

A fem bot is a fake female profile

that has a chat capability.

It's built to entice men to keep responding.

And while they're doing that, they're spending money.

KRISTEN: And I think that made the hack seem

so much sadder in some instances,

because, you know, these people had been paying money.

They had risked their home lives, their family lives,

and they weren't even engaging with real women.

[inquisitive music]

Encountering bots pre-hack on Ashley Madison,

yeah, I'm sure I did.

It's harder for men.

And men are desperate, so they're vulnerable,

and you never quite know

what you're gonna get yourself into.

The feedback I kept getting is, "You're so real."

It was because I wasn't like a robot.

Even if there was someone real messaging you,

you'd never know, because it's hidden.

It's like she'd be hidden in the bots.

JEREMY: They launched 22,000 fem bots during 2013.

If you look at the revenue, it took an immediate uptick.

In 2012, world revenue was $71 million.

Two years later, it was over 180 million,

more than double.

Now, we can't say conclusively that that was a result

of the fem bots, but as they say in America,

go figure.

Now we're a real business, a global business, right,

in 46 countries, generating over $100 million a year.

Are we the next billion-dollar company?

I would argue so.

It really shows that the guy who's the CEO

is a real, like-- I don't know--

[bleep] of a wingman, really, you know?

I mean, this guy-- you know, guys are supposed

to be looking out for each other

when it comes to the dating scene,

and this guy basically raked in a lot of money

off of these guys who were just looking to score.

I mean, this guy should just be tarred and feathered,

I think, by every guy on that site.

Well, he's having a rough week,

we'll say that, right, the CEO of this company.

I think with Noel, all these various practices

that are being pushed fall squarely on his shoulders.

He certainly was making less public appearances.

And I don't think that there was any incentivization

within the company to speak publicly

about this particular issue on camera.

He was certainly more somber and quiet around the office.

Sort of at that point, the house of cards

starts to come down.

[inquisitive music]

CHRIS: It was intriguing as lower-rung staff

watched this flaming train speeding by on the track

and no one there to put the fire out.

CLAIRE: Once Noel's hacked emails became public,

there was also devastating information

about Noel personally.

[upbeat music]

Noel regularly went on talk shows with his wife

and claimed to be in a monogamous marriage.

You two have been married for ten years.

- Ten years. - Is that true?

You have a monogamous relationship.

Yes, absolutely. And I would be devastated if he did it to me.

INTERVIEWER: You don't cheat on each other?

No, and ironically, one of the major benefits of me

running this business is that if anyone on the planet

should know what it takes to be

in a successful relationship, it's me.

My wife and I are very honest with one another

about what we need and how our relationship will work.

SUNNY: Whoever this Impact Team was,

they certainly uncovered some interesting information.

There was a second data dump by these hackers

that had the CEO's emails in it.

And in those emails, there were close to 300 messages

between the founder, Noel Biderman, and a woman

who suggested the two were meeting up at hotels

regularly for dates.

In fact, there are these email chains

where he says he's interested in escorts.

And in one in particular, he says he's interested

in 18-to 19-year-olds.

"Do you have some available right now?"

And then goes on to say that he's at this particular hotel.

"Who can come?

"And I would prefer two.

Call me."

CHARLES: I laughed.

I was like, there's all these things.

And then on top of it, you have this too.

So much hypocrisy just exuding out of his pores.

I don't understand.

Under pressure, it looks like Noel Biderman,

effective immediately, will be stepping down

as the CEO of Ashley Madison.

Sara, back to you.

Not such a surprise, I guess.

- No. - What a nightmare.

I think we could have seen this coming.

I certainly wasn't surprised when he quit.

Like, there was no way.

How do you-- you can't survive that.

There's way too much.

There's just so much.

REPORTER: The site's parent company,

Avid Life Media, saying in a statement

"This change is in the best interest of the company

"and allows us to continue to provide support

to our members and dedicated employees."

Avid Life Media said Noel Biderman's departure

was a mutual decision and is in

the best interest of the company.

CHRIS: I don't know what happened to him after he left.

He vanished off the face of the Earth.

I do know that he still works.

I've seen him on LinkedIn.

Um, but beyond that, no idea what he's up to.

SUNNY: Noel still resides in Canada.

He lists his occupation as an entrepreneur.

CHRIS: He certainly hasn't been in the public eye since.

SUNNY: So who did this?

Who planned it?

Who executed it so flawlessly?

BRIAN: Ashley Madison offered a $500,000 bounty

several days after they had acknowledged the breach.

And you know, they probably got a few armchair investigators

off their butts for a little bit.

JEREMY: The biggest question for me

around the hack is, why?

SUNNY: My gut would tell me money but for the fact that

they didn't ask for money in the beginning.

So I would have to go to revenge.

TROY: Could it be a scorned lover?

Well, it'd have to be a very

technically capable scorned lover.

I think you're looking at a very,

very small piece of society.

Was it someone who'd spent more money

than they can afford on the site?

PER: They've signed up.

They haven't been able to meet any women.

You've been ripping me off

and this is my way to punish you.

Now, it did seem like somebody

really had it in for the CEO of Ashley Madison.

CLAIRE: Because the hack included

all of Noel Biderman's emails,

that suggests that there was something personal about it

that the hacker really wanted to reveal these sort

of embarrassing details.

And when you consider one of the statements

from the Impact Team, that "ALM management

"is bullshit and has made millions of dollars

from complete 100% fraud."

These are people who are going after Noel

and the company and their business practices.

There was speculation in the office about who it could be.

We theorized that it was someone who had worked there,

maybe a disgruntled ex-IT who knew that those

glaring security flaws were there.

BRIAN: When I interviewed the Ashley Madison CEO in 2015

breaking the story about the breach

he told me straight up they knew who was responsible,

that they were somebody who had access

to their systems previously, but not an employee.

Now, that is pretty specific.

That alone to me suggested that they must have had some kind

of feeling about this going into it

before they even knew they were hacked.

And we see that in the leaked Ashley Madison emails.

JEREMY: There was some concern about a past employee

who was somewhat troubled.

He'd already left the company and was in dispute with them

over certain bonus payments.

So this is 2012.

This person, Will Harrison,

sent a lot of emails to Ashley Madison,

and to Noel in particular.

And it got to the stage where Ashley Madison

were referring it to the police.

This email starts off, "You called the police on me

"saying I'm threatening you all?

"Yeah, good luck with that bullshit lies,

"kind of like the other bullshit lies

you pulled wrongfully terminating me."

Now, all of this is in capitals.

I'm not gonna read any of the rest of it

because it's just too abusive and too profane.

BRIAN: And certainly, you come away with the conclusion

that whoever wrote them had a lot of, uh, anger

and hate in their heart for the CEO.

JEREMY: Also, Ashley Madison executives

suspected that after he'd been terminated,

Will Harrison was leaking company information.

It was clear that there were only a few authorized accounts

within Ashley Madison that would have

had access to that data.

In 2012, they start looking around and they go,

wait a minute here.

Will no longer works for us.

Why does Will still have uber-god admin privileges here?

So I think that was kind of a shock to the system for them.

And I'm quite sure that they took steps to try

to get rid of that account.

But my guess is, they did not get him out of the system

and that he retained access.

JEREMY: So could he have been the hacker in 2015?

Rarely do I get that sense where all of the signs

point definitively to, yes, this is the guy,

like there's a giant neon sign hanging over

the guy's head saying, "I did it," right?

And you don't normally get that kind of conclusion

in the research that I do.

I mean, he fits the profile.

He obviously had

a major axe to grind against the company.

So he had motive to do that.

The criminal history check into Will Harrison

showed that he had a substantial rap sheet.

And in some of the research was a Facebook page

where he's posing with a bulletproof vest on

and a handgun.

There's no doubt in my mind that when they became aware

they were hacked in July 2015,

the CEO and probably others in the company

did really believe it was Will.

I was able to determine that, uh, Will's stepmom

lived in Northern Virginia,

so I decided to give her a call.

[line trilling]

I got out of her fairly quickly

that Will was no longer with us,

and that, uh, he had shot himself,

uh, fatally,

uh, and that this happened sometime

in the summer of 2014, uh,

so more than a full year before we learned

about the Ashley Madison hack.

My guess is, they did not get him out of the system.

And it's quite possible he was working with other people

and gave them the access that he had.

Somebody retained access

up until we learned about the breach.

But we don't know.

Our issues in relation to the events of 2015

are still an ongoing and open case.

We have no information.

There is no-- there are no suspects,

or no known suspects.

[inquisitive music]

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission

opens an investigation into the company's practices.

SUNNY: So the Federal Trade Commission

takes Ashley Madison on, as they should.

That's their job.

You don't want the FTC coming after you

for deceptive business practices.

It's probably one of the worst things.

My opinion was that

this was the death knell for Ashley Madison.

That was the end.

It was clear the company was falling down on its job

in cybersecurity.

And I think what was such a profound betrayal

was the dating profiles being women that were bots.

That's deception.

MAN 5: The adultery dating website

Ashley Madison will pay

more than $1.6 million in settlements.

The investigation found that the company used lax

online security and misled users.

SUNNY: Being investigated by the FTC

should be the death knell

for your entrepreneurial future endeavors.

But $1.66 million, that's just a mere pittance.

Judge, what are the chances that there are some lawyers

calling around some of the victims and saying,

"Let's band together. "I'm gonna help you out.

"We'll get you a class action lawsuit against Ashley Madison."

I think there's probably an excellent chance.

After we learned what happened at this company,

people are angry.

They feel duped.

And they decided to get together

and file a class action lawsuit.

MARVIN: I wanted to get back at Ashley Madison

because I felt it was their responsibility

to protect my data.

And I was upset about the messages

that I got from the profiles that

I believe weren't real people.

For them to do that to people,

that was nothing more than an attempt

to shake them down for money.

It's awful. It's awful.

You know, people spending their hard-earned money

for whatever fantasy.

They didn't deserve to be robbed for all intents.

[phone rings]

REPORTER: Caller after caller wanting in

on this class action lawsuit

against infidelity website Ashley Madison.

SUNNY: They alleged deceptive business practices.

What's also important to note is that the victims

would like to proceed anonymously.

One of the ways that the class action suit

could have destroyed Ashley Madison is because

the more victims you have,

the larger the settlement should be.

And so this certainly could have just

decimated the company,

millions and millions and millions of dollars.

A judge just ruled that if these victims wanna sue,

they have to reveal who they are.

Okay?

It was a genius move

that Ashley Madison's lawyer said,

"Well, if you wanna sue, then you can't be anonymous."

You have to be a named plaintiff of the class.

- But these are-- - Are they victims, though?

- They're cheaters. - Are they victims?

- They're cheaters. - Cheaters aren't victims.

They have a right to sue, but not as an anonymous cheater.

Kelly on Twitter says, "Nope. You play, you pay.

"If you're big enough to cheat on that website,

then you should be big enough to state your real name."

We talked about this on "The View,"

and I maintain what I maintained then,

they didn't deserve anonymity.

I will say I think that's fair.

DANIELLE: The Ashley Madison hack

made imminently clear to me that cheaters deserve privacy.

We all deserve privacy.

I don't care what you're doing with your life.

Each and every one of us, you know,

we all deserve intimate privacy.

If you wanted to sue, you had to out yourself

to your family, to the world, to your employer.

DANIELLE: You're making yourself vulnerable, right?

And so, you know, there is that conversation

a lawyer has with a client and says, are you sure?

Are you okay with putting your name on this lawsuit?

Because online abuse and harassment

might very well follow.

And so the lawsuit class drops

from 42 to 18.

That's a big win.

It could possibly save the company.

Uh, after, uh, speaking with the attorneys,

and potentially altering my life in a way,

I felt that it was good for me to take a stand.

I had to come out front and center

and put my name out there and let people know what happened.

When I got the message that Ashley Madison lost,

that we had won the case, I was thrilled,

knowing that I could take on the company,

and we could make them pay for their actions.

The class action settlement was around the area

of $11.2 million.

That's not a lot of money because it's then split

for the whole class.

SUNNY: Three years earlier, Ashley Madison had a revenue

of over $150 million.

This is a drop in the bucket for them.

And so it is really no longer this situation where,

oh, my goodness, this company is over.

Facing a class action lawsuit is not surprising when we had

an event like we did in 2015.

But it wasn't extinction level event,

fortunately, for us.

Contrary to maybe common sense or common knowledge

it rose, phoenix-like, from its ashes.

The site is doing really well.

[laughing]

Of course it is! Yeah, there we go.

Good for them.

They did it.

KEABLE: The events of 2015 were a moment

where we truly let our membership down.

At the core of Ashley Madison is a promise of discretion,

a promise of privacy.

And we failed there.

And we understood if this business could ever succeed,

we're gonna have to build back the trust

with our existing members

and any potential future members.

In 2017, we commissioned a report from Ernst & Young

to verify that there were no bots on the system

once, uh, we remediated that issue completely.

Part of the reason we also brought in Ernst & Young

was to validate the nature of our membership,

'cause that was a real critical question coming out of 2015.

Were there women on the site?

And Ernst & Young showed that in 2017,

looking at the 5 million, roughly, sign-ups we had,

the ratio of was 1 male for every 1.13 female.

It was 2017 when I started cheating.

The hack didn't bother me when I signed up because, honestly,

I figured that they probably had

to tighten up their security.

It was a huge ego boost, just to feel desired.

Did I think twice about using

Ashley Madison because of the breach?

Yeah, a little, but any website can be breached.

I took as much precaution as I could.

If there was anything that happened,

my name wouldn't be published anywhere.

One day I went back to go look,

and it just seemed like business as usual.

And isn't that an interesting statement on human nature?

Ultimately, it's just like, the dust settles,

and then everybody goes back to their life

pursuing what they want to pursue.

One could argue that the upside to the hack

is that not only did it not

put Ashley Madison out of business.

Now millions more people knew about the existence

of a platform where you could have an affair.

KEABLE: You don't get 20,000-plus people

signing up a day just because, you know,

you say we're a great place.

We're offering something that's needed, wanted, and desired.

[upbeat music]

PAOLA: I don't know that a website like that

is scandalous anymore.

But I feel like, you know, there's all sorts of websites

where people can do all sorts of things,

and we're mostly okay with it.

Our brand will continue to evolve

because there are people who are living

a non-monogamous lifestyle.

And that might be swingers and a whole variety

of other dynamics that fall under the polyamorous brand.

[inquisitive music]

ALISHA: Definitely attitudes towards monogamy are changing.

I definitely think 100 years from now,

it's gonna be even more relaxed and more acceptable.

And I think that's just the natural progression

of society, you know?

The old-fashioned views are dying off.

If I thought I could have an open relationship

with my husband and that I could see other people,

and that we'd both be happy, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

But I know him.

He would never, never.

He'd never do it because it would be

a huge betrayal for him,

and our marriage will be over,

basically, either way.

I think that non-monogamy on a whole

is becoming more accepted.

But I don't think that adultery is becoming more accepted,

because adultery involves deception and lying,

and hurts the other person.

There's going to be businesses that prey

or lean into every aspect of the human experience--

some beautiful, some a little bit gruesome.

Ashley Madison is gruesome.

Here's someone who is addicted to love

because you want the thrill of that feeling,

that spark, amazing.

Polyamory literally breaks down into many loves.

That's you!

So there are so many

great sites and communities

and places in the light that you can exist

and mingle with people who enthusiastically claim

this is a part of their life and their existence.

So I have less tolerance now for people who still choose

to do the betrayal route.

I've heard other women talk about this where they just,

like, have this innate kind of, like, gut feeling of,

"I feel like there's something being hidden from me."

We were still relative newlyweds

when I opened his phone, and I discovered the messages

in Ashley Madison.

It felt like he just outsourced desire to somebody else,

to anyone else, really, that was willing.

It was just, "I need to have sex."

That was definitely the mission from the messages I read.

"We're here to do one thing."

I felt like somebody had punched me in the gut.

I remember, like, my knees, like, buckling a little bit,

like, which sounds so dramatic, but I had never experienced

that sort of, like, wind just being knocked out of me.

When you discover something like that, like a secret

so big that you don't know how long it's been going on for,

how far it's gone, you really do question

every interaction that you've had with that person.

I stormed into our room, and I woke him up.

I turned all the lights on.

And I was like, what is this?

Just showed him what I'd found.

And his reaction was to say,

"Oh, I'm so glad you found it,"

which really took me by surprise.

Yeah, he was glad. He was glad I found it.

He said that it had been a secret weighing on him

for several months, and that he was wanting to get caught.

That's why he said it was so easy to find, apparently.

Yeah.

That was one of the lowest points

of my entire, entire existence.

It's not okay to lie to people.

It's not okay to pretend you're someone that

you're not capable of being,

especially in the world that we live in today,

wherein, again, there are options and outlets

to be a better person.

Going through infidelity and divorce

has definitely changed a lot of how

I view what love actually is.

SHAN: We are split on so many issues,

so many very arousing issues,

whether that be gun control or birth control

or the death penalty.

But if you wanna know a place where most people

have a same strong opinion, it's cheating.

We can almost universally across the board

agree that this is a bad thing.

I'm always in favor of letting people live the way

that they want in as many ways as possible

when it's all, like, consensual,

and all of those things. Those are wonderful things.

I think the issue with infidelity

is always that it's, by definition, non-consensual.

CHARLES: I think as long as people are unhappy

in their relationships, websites or apps like this

will continue to be successful.

If you're unhappy, people risk much more

to feel happy than merely putting their information

on a website.

[instrumental music]