Fact Check: Can you message on Ashley Madison without paying?

The documentary Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal was recently released on Netflix. Chronicling all the way back to 2015, the documentary explores the hacking scandal that the site faced and how millions of users had their chats exposed, leading to a massive data breach.

The entire concept behind Ashley Madison was that it is a dating website that's built around married people trying to find an affair. While the site was at its height before the hacking took place, the dating platform is still active in 2024.

However, that connection definitely comes at a huge cost as to send a message, men have to pay on the platform.

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Men have to pay to send a message on Ashley Madison

Ashley Madison works on a credit system. When signing up for the dating app, men have to buy any of the listed plans in case if they want to continue matching with women and texting them as well. Men can enjoy free services for the first 30 days, but after that, they will have to get out their wallets.

The basic plan for the dating app starts from $59.99 or ₹4,997.10, which offers men over 100 credits that they can use to text women. There is also a standard plan that starts at $169.99 or ₹14,159.97, which offers over 500 credits, and an elite plan that costs $289.99 or ₹24,155.83 which offers 1000 credits. These credits can be used to message women.

However, for women, it is quite easy on the dating app as they can use its services for free and don't have to pay anything to use it. The business model is quite similar to Bumble's, where women are prioritized as well due to them getting to message their matches first.

But the short answer is, if you're a man, then you have to buy the credits to use the app.

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How did the Ashley Madison hacking affect people?

A group known as The Impact Team claimed responsibility for hacking the Ashley Madison website in July 2015. They claimed to have stolen personal data of people, including credit card numbers, home addresses, search histories, and more, and threatened to release it all if the site wouldn't be shut down.

Ashley Madison does not delete their user data after the account is terminated, which caused a huge issue among many as they feared that the leaked information might cause them shame. Following Impact Team's threat, the data started leaking the following August and caused huge distress among many.

The leak saw many normal people and celebrities getting exposed for having committed adultery in their personal relationships. Many were also being extorted for money by anonymous groups who were threatening them.

The fallout of the whole situation saw the parent company behind Ashley Madison pay $11.2 million to settle the lawsuit that was filed against them.

You can check out the documentary on Netflix as it's streaming on the platform now.