Toronto police say they have unconfirmed reports of two suicides ”associated with the leak of Ashley Madison’s customers’ profiles.” Last week, hackers exposed more than 30 million email addresses and some credit card information from the database of the Canadian adultery dating site.
Bryce Evan, acting staff superintendent of the Toronto police department, ”didn’t give any further details where the unconfirmed suicide cases may have occurred” during a morning press conference, Canadian broadcaster CBC reported.
The hack has also led to “spin-offs of crimes and further victimization” such as scams that offer the chance to delete profile information, according to Evans. ”Nobody is going to be able to erase that information,” he said.
Avid Life Media, the Toronto-based parent company of Ashley Madison, is offering a $500,000 reward to anyone who provides information about the hackers.
The hackers, who identified themselves as The Impact Team, attacked the site in July and threatened to expose users’ information unless the site closed down. They leaked the data on Aug. 18.
Ashley Madison also faces a $578 million class-action lawsuit in Canada for failing to protect user information.