In an effort to legally protect itself, the infidelity website Ashley Madison is now saying it actually warned its users that they were Internet-flirting with fembots.
In August, we reported that two Canadian law firms representing the extramarital dating service members in Canada filed a $578 million class-action lawsuit against Avid Life Media, Inc., the parent company of the website, and Avid Dating Life, Inc.
The affair finder site has been in hot water after Ashley Madison users' private information were reportedly leaked by hackers.
Previously, the company denied allegations that it ran fake accounts on the website. However, based on the information in the data dump, it was reportedly revealed that 90 to 95 percent of female profiles are fembots or fake female accounts sending tons of messages to the site's users.
Now, the terms and conditions of the hacked extramarital dating site stipulates that Ashley Madison allows bot accounts to run.
"You acknowledge and agree that any profiles of users and Members, as well as, communications from such persons may not be true, accurate or authentic and may be exaggerated or based on fantasy," reads the terms and conditions. "You acknowledge and understand that you may be communicating with such persons and that we are not responsible for such communications."
The fembots were created, according to Ashley Madison, to allow the "Guests" to experience the type of communications they wish to obtain from the site.
Meanwhile, a class-action lawsuit was filed by a Christopher Russell Sept. 11 in Maryland District against Avid Life Media, Inc. and Avid Dating Life, Inc. for running tens of thousands of fake female accounts. Russel disclosed he joined the infidelity website upon separating from his wife. He said he spent $100 in credits to chat with real females and not with bots.
We reported in August that several emails as well as billing addresses from Ashley Madison and its sister websites, including sugar daddy search site Established Men, were leaked to the Internet. It is believed that around 32 million people were compromised by the attacks.
"We're all saying: 'It's going to be Christmas in September,'" said a Los Angeles-based divorce lawyer, Steve Mindel. "Pretty soon all of this stuff is going to surface and there's going to be a lot of filings for divorce directly as a result of this."
