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Ashley Madison's fake females accused of cheating the cheaters

Posted On: Sep. 15, 2015 12:00 AM CST

While many of the exposed cheaters of extramarital-fling website Ashley Madison are sobbing over their lost anonymity, some are just annoyed the women they were Internet-flirting with didn't actually exist.

A Maryland man is suing Toronto-based Avid Life Media Inc., the parent company of Ashley Madison, and Avid Dating Life Inc. for reportedly populating the online cheating service with thousands of fake women, according to a class action lawsuit filed Sept. 11 in Maryland District Court.

Christopher Russell, who says he joined Ashley Madison after separating from his wife, spent $100 in credits to chat with real females on the site, only to find his chat partners were mostly “fembots with fake profiles,” the lawsuit states.

These fembots were revealed after the personal information of Ashley Madison users was leaked by hackers in August, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit claims that Ashley Madison hired employees to generate thousands of bogus female profiles and more than 70,000 female bots to send male users messages.

Ashley Madison had marketed its site as having 5.5 million legitimate female profiles, the lawsuit alleged, when in fact hackers say 90% to 95% of female profiles are fake, according to media reports.

“Defendants' fraudulent and deceitful acts were designed to willfully and knowingly mislead customers into signing the customer agreement, joining the website and spending money,” the lawsuit states.

Mr. Russell and the proposed class of 25,000 plaintiffs are seeking punitive and compensatory damages, and a refund of the money they spent on Ashley Madison, the lawsuit states.