Married Dating
Is The Ashley Madison Agency Legitimate?
by Cindy English · 10 Comments
Is the Ashley Madison dating site for married people legitimate?
Here's an email that I received recently from a reader who was curious as to whether or not the
Ashley Madison Agency is on the "up and up" or not…
Hi Cindy,
Interesting website you've established. I saw your article/review of the Ashley Madison site – I am one of those out-of-the-loop folks that had never heard of it. Checked it out more out of curiosity than anything. I tend to be a bit voyeuristic when it comes to infidelity. Like to window shop. My question to you relates to how surprised I was by the large number of public photos of 'attached' people. Given the high cost of one's spouse/co-worker/friend or others seeing it, I wouldn't have thought there would be many at all. Last thing I would do. It makes me wonder if the site is part scam. I've seen some sites with these beautiful women 'looking for it right now' which seems like a hook to get you to sign up. I did a basic profile on the site and received an email from a woman in NY (I'm in Atl) within 2 hours. To look at it I need to buy credits. Another enticement type tactic. What are your thoughts on the picture posting on A.M. and the legitimacy in general?
Thanks!
Good question!
Okay…so here is my take on the Ashley Madison dating site the caters specifically to married people looking for a little sex on the side…
I have reviewed MANY dating sites, married or otherwise and by "review" I mean actually signed up, added a profile, explored the site and waited to see what happened. There are questionable tactics use on many of these sites but not all of them.
Here is just a sample of what I have learned…
Many dating sites do not have "unique" members. These sites "share" their clients. By that I mean that if you put your profile on just one site, you may find that your profile is in fact on many different sites.
Proving this point, last year, I joined Mature Date Link, a mature dating site to review it.
A short time later I was contacted by a man who said he found my profile on Cheating Wives. I told him that there was no way that he could have found me on that site because #1 – I am not married and #2 – I never signed up on any such site. Well, I went to the site he described and found that both of these were "Date Link" sites. Sure enough, the password and username that I had registered with on the Mature Date site, worked on the Cheating Wives site as well. I found a carbon copy of my Mature Date profile right there on Cheating Wives without me having ever been to the site before!
Further investigation showed me that the "Date Link" network is HUGE. Take a look! That's at least 43 "Date Link" sites that are possibly hosting your profile and all because you just signed up on ONE! That is scary! One does not even know where to begin looking if they were not aware of this to remove their profile if they wanted to! The fact that these sites cater to all possible fetishes and orientations explains some of the more bizzare "flirts" that I have gotten as well!
Another well used tactic is the "wink". Often, if you view someone's profile, an "automated" wink will be sent to you indicating someone's interest in you. Of course you will have to become a paying member to view their full profile or contact them. Just as the reader said: "Another enticement type tactic." Singlesnet is guilty of this.
I discovered this when a man sent me a very rude, extremely hostile email…"How dare I contact him? Was I illiterate?" Could I not READ that his profile specifically stated that he HATED SMOKERS?" I am a smoker…vile bitch that I am! 
Keep in mind that when I review these sites, I NEVER initiate contact with anyone, I simply view profiles. I found Singlesnet to be the worst for this! Within a period of 2 weeks, I had received 5 more emails from men all thanking me for contacting them. I HAD viewed each of their profiles, but had NOT contacted any of them!
I responded to one gentleman who seemed very sincere. He thanked me very much for the explanation as to the false "wink" and said that that explained why so many of the women who had initiated contact with him, never responded when he answered their winks!
What's different about the famous Ashley Madison Agency?
Ashley Madison on the other hand is somewhat unique and not affiliated with any other dating sites. They are the only site that I know of that uses the credit system rather than a monthly membership fee.
I have watched them for more than two years now, grow steadily in membership and rank in the search engines. I was not overly impressed with the site when I first visited but, for reasons that I cannot explain, they are doing very well.
I think their advertising tactics are brilliant. The statement "Life's Short – Have An Affair" may well raise the ire of morally and ethically "correct" people but the more they protest the existence of Ashley Madison, the more they raise awareness of the site. More awareness = more curiousity seekers = more members = more money!
So…
With regard to the legitimacy of Ashley Madison…they are unique. If you become a member there, you will NOT find your profile plastered on a dozen other unauthorized sites.
As for posting your photo…that is a personal decision you will have to make based on the importance of you remaining anonyomous. You will definitely get more "action" with a photo posted but you do run the risk of someone you know finding you there and telling your wife.
YOU may even discover you recognize a few people yourself. I know that I did! 
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Beautiful Enslavement
You'll never get outed for posting your picture on Ashley Madison.
Think about it – the people who are searching profiles there are there because they want to cheat on their spouse.
If they find your picture there, they are going to keep their mouths shut, because there is no way for them to out you with out ruining their own relationship.
Ashleymadison is clearly a scam. For details and reviews just go to http://www.ashleymadison.com. As a reviewer your credibility is at stake. You might want to dig a little deeper.
From what I can see, even at the surface level, Ashley Madison is obviously fraudulent. One issue is that they openly admit their deviousness, at their Legal & Disclaimers tab, which goes on and on: "From time to time this service may include, offer, or initiate winks, collect messages or instant chat from Market Researchers (Online Hosts) simulating attached or single men or women. These efforts are conducted for market research and/or customer experience and/or quality control and/or compliance purposes…"
However, I must ask, why has no one mentioned the specific method that members use to generate their online personal profiles at Ashley Madison? It is inherently very suspicious. New profiles are created from a template that can accept photos and typed text. But the template also includes many check boxes, arranged with long lists of preferences, perhaps a hundred or more. They cover such exciting choices as "like lots of foreplay" versus "too busy for preliminaries", or "has a settled love nest" versus "meets discretely at randomly chosen motels". These check boxes are impressively grouped in appealing arrangements, in the various categories of "Who I am looking for", "What turns me on", "My idea of a perfect date", and so on. Oh yes, the check boxes also let each member quickly and explicitly describe which sex acts they do or don't enjoy, and will or won't perform.
As a certain comedian asks– Is that not a sign?
Further, at Ashley Madison, 98% of women's profiles are filled out, only by checking those boxes, although the site provides several areas to type text!
A "bot" computer program could be set up to check those boxes in different patterns, and automatically populate the site with thousands of fictitious members, with a dazzling variety of interests, aching to be satisfied. Are customers too computer illiterate, to see this? And needless to say, most of those check boxes, with their rather risque descriptions, doubtlessly have strong appeal for men. Maybe I'm naive, but no woman I've ever met jumps that quickly into, well– revealing such personal information.
The profiles on Ashley Madison stand out in stark contrast to other dating sites that insist on a writing sample, from a live human being. To take one example, PlentyOfFish.com, which is free, and accepts profile posts from anyone, single or married, straight or gay, or bi, or whatever. At PlentyOfFish, there are some checkboxes and pull down lists, for the dry stats like age, marital status, and so on. However, unlike Ashley Madison, PlentyOfFish requires a written paragraph, minimum of about a hundred words. It is very interesting that most of the profiles at PlentyOfFish are written by people who obviously find the written language very challenging. But they do post some text, and appear to have passed the CAPTCHA test! Many photos are hidden from public view, especially for the married women. Many profiles are almost incoherent, but almost all are plausible.
In contrast, the women of Ashley Madison are a strangely silent group, when it comes to posting their own thoughts, upon their profiles. They just check some boxes, and post, with no further comment. Shy? Not very literate, perhaps? Or completely fictitious?
Yeah fellow men, its a scam, don't join –they'll take your money. Spend it on women you meet on business trips.