TORONTO — Avid Life Media, the parent company behind AshleyMadison.com, offered a bounty of $380,000 ($500,000 Canadian) for information that leads to the “identification, arrest and prosecution” of the individuals responsible for the recent data hack that struck the online dating service.
The reward comes as a report emerges that two former Ashley Madison users have committed suicide in the wake of the massive data breach.
“As of this morning, we have two unconfirmed reports of suicides that are associated to the leaks of Ashley Madison’s customer profiles,” Toronto Police spokesman Bryce Evans said.
Evans said that the hack is one of the largest in the world and that it was unique because of the kind of information released by the hackers, now known as “Impact Team.”
There have been two data dumps involving the Ashley Madison breach. The first one contained user information, while the second appears to include mostly source code for the Ashley Madison site, as well as emails from Avid Life Media CEO Noel Biderman.
“The Impact Team’s actions have already sparked spinoffs of crimes and further victimization,” Evans told USA Today. “Criminals have already engaged in online scams by claiming to provide access to the leaked database.”
Evans noted one scam where other criminals were contacting people and saying that they have been able to track them via Facebook and will share the Ashley Madison data with the victims’ friends, families, and employers if they don’t pay the extortionists 1.05 bitcoins.