South African philanderers caught up in the Ashley Madison hacking scandal are now falling prey to online extortionists threatening to air their dirty laundry.
Millions of people using the global infidelity website had their personal information stolen by hackers who published the details last month on the dark web.
Now, adding insult to injury, customers whose data was stolen are being held to ransom.
A woman living in Cape Town, whose identity is known to The Times, received a notification this week demanding payment in bitcoin in exchange for avoiding further embarrassment by sharing her sexual adventures with friends, family and her employer.
Arthur Goldstuck, director of World Wide Works, said he doubted people would fall for the blackmail, “especially as the list of names is already out there to see”.
He said he thought those behind it were more likely in possession of a number of names and were trying a hit and miss tactic.
Danny Myburgh, a cyber forensic expert at Cyanre, The Computer Forensic Lab, said it was an opportunistic crime.
“The list is out there. It is not that they can put the list out on the internet again,” he said.