Affairs

It’s been almost half a decade since news of Ashley Madison’s hacking scandal was heard ‘round the world. Now, just as memories of the hack had started to fade, data from the breach is at the center of a new cyber extortion scam.

In summer 2015, all the dating industry could talk about was The Impact Team — the group of hackers that gained access to Ashley Madison’s database of more than 37 million members and threatened to release customer records unless the dating site for adulterers shut down. The hackers made good on their threat and Ashley Madison found itself facing a $760 million class action lawsuit. Though some predicted that it could be the end of the dating site, Ashley Madison held strong and celebrated reaching 60 million members last year.

Got the hots for your married boss? Or the cutie in accounting? If you’ve fantasized about having a fling with a taken colleague, a naughty new dating service is here to help.

Affair at Work is designed to help attached employees “safely” cheat on their partners in the workplace. Although dating services for affair-seekers are nothing new (Ashley Madison is the most notable among them), Affair at Work takes a slightly different approach. The service works via Instagram and is centered around the idea of verifying if an office crush shares your interest.

Four years after a hacking scandal threatened to bring it down, Ashley Madison is celebrating a milestone. The notorious infidelity dating site has reached 60 million members worldwide since launching in 2002.

"Our unique community of like-minded people continues to grow across the globe," said Paul Keable, Chief Strategy Officer of Ashley Madison, in a prepared statement. "We offer discretion to those seeking infidelity, and clearly, with strong results underscoring the company's growth, what we offer is in demand."

Ashley Madison’s latest annual Report on Customer Statistics reveals that more than 14,500 new member accounts were added on average each day in 2018. For every active paid male account, 1.1 active female accounts were created. The site averages more than 440,000 new signups per month and facilitates more than 39.5 thousand affairs per day. In total, over 5.3 million new accounts were registered on Ashley Madison last year.

Hot on the heels of Match’s announcement that its new service, Ask Match, will make dating coaches available for one-on-one phone sessions, Ashley Madison is planning a coaching service of its own. The dating site for affair seekers recently revealed it has been testing a "cheating coaches" feature in Brazil and the United States since March of this year.

Hiring a coach to improve your romantic game is nothing new, but Ashley Madison may be the first to apply the idea to infidelity. The feature will allow users to search for an available coach through the mobile app, then purchase time with them via a credits system. Each credit costs around 50 cents, according to Business Insider. A continuous conversation with a coach will set you back eight credits.

Is your partner a doctor? A Libertarian? Obsessed with tattoos? If so, a series of surveys from married dating site Ashley Madison says they may be more likely to cheat.

As the world’s foremost experts in affairs, with more than 39 million users in 53 countries, the folks at Ashley Madison know a thing or two about infidelity. Several studies conducted by the company this year reveal the secrets of America’s cheaters, including who’s most likely to be unfaithful, what they’re attracted to when they do it, and which partners are most likely to forgive an adulterous indiscretion.

One survey determined the professions that are most likely to stray. The most common jobs for cheating women are in the medical field (nurses/doctors). “A combination of long hours of potential stress mixed with a natural reaction to stress just might be the reason these women in the medical profession seek out an affair,” reports Ashley Madison.

Augmented Reality is the future of dating, at least according to the folks at Feeld. The company whose original app was marketed to those interested in threesomes is betting their new app Signal will be revolutionary for the online dating market.

Signal will hit the market in the summer of 2018 according to Feeld. It works by giving members access to a secret location visible through the app, allowing them to meet people this way instead of endless matching and messaging.

The company notes that most dating apps operate in a way that is counterproductive to what people want. Instead of encouraging folks to meet in real life and leave the app, the apps have created a game-like stickiness. App users become addicted to swiping and being on the app rather than pursuing “real-life” relationships.