Original subtitles

[birds chirping]

[insects buzzing]

[chimes tinkling]

STEFANY: We were just living our life in the suburbs...

just working, being parents.

We had the kids. We had a dog. We had a house.

You know, we had it all.

I had met my husband in...

it was January of 2006.

And we just really fell hard for each other.

And a year and a half later, we got married.

And it was good.

And then about five and a half years in...

I knew something wasn't right.

He was going out more

telling me that he was...

He'd go on these weekend getaways

with a friend that he really didn't talk to that much

so I found that kind of odd.

I know two things in life...

You're gonna die and to trust your gut.

Your gut never lies.

Watch out, cheaters

or anybody who used the website Ashley Madison...

Ashley Madison is a website

that connects married people who want to cheat.

The only news bigger than Trump

is a sensational data dump.

Computer hackers have leaked the names and details

of 32 million people.

The hack has resulted

in hate crimes, cyber scams, even suicides.

Suicides, extortion, divorce.

MALE REPORTER: Searchable databases

are popping up online

to identify would-be adulterers.

FEMALE REPORTER: Just type in a name or email address

and you'll find out if someone...

[upbeat music]

[smooth jazz music]

[singers vocalizing]

It's the teenage me.

You know, I want the male attention.

I want the sex and the fun

and the promiscuity.

But I don't want to give up my marriage or family for that.

It does seem to fill a need

that makes life more tolerable.

I don't want to make it sound

like it's an addiction, but...

[sighs] It allows me to function properly.

First dates are nerve-racking enough.

But when you're meeting someone who knows that you're married

for probably the purposes of sex

it just adds an extra layer

of...

of anxiety, I guess.

I have friends who say, oh, you know

"I haven't been laid in so long."

I think, "You know what?

"Let me make you an Ashley Madison profile

"and I'll have you laid by midnight.

If you're not picky, by noon."

CLAIRE: Before things like Facebook

things like Myspace

the things that really brought

this concept of a social network

into the mainstream of a place where people go

and connect and meet each other

Ashley Madison launches.

They formed when only about 59% of the country

was even on the "Internet."

[geese honking]

[car horns honk]

PAUL: In the early 2000s, online dating was becoming

very popular and accepted.

And our founders saw some reports

that up 30% of profiles

on these traditional dating sites

were in fact married people pretending to be single

looking to have an affair.

And that is the proverbial light-bulb moment

that said, "Well, what happens if we created a place

"for adulterers to meet

and be a little bit more honest with each other?"

The first choice they made was to call it Ashley Madison.

They wanted to make it female friendly.

And they chose two names

that were very popular baby-girl names in 2002...

Ashley and Madison.

There's something so creepy about that.

[chuckles] If Ashley Madison named itself

after the two most popular baby names

of the year that they launched, that's...

I need a shower.

[glasses clink]

I mean, I just assume Ashley Madison as a character

is definitely blonde.

-Yeah, yeah. -Yeah.

-No offense to blondes. -That's potentially...

That's the whitest name I've ever heard, is...

-Yeah. -Ashley Madison?

-Hey, I'm Ashley Madison. -Yeah.

You're never supposed to trust somebody

with two first names, Will Miles.

Wait. [chuckles]

It opened up the possibility

of having an extramarital affair

for people who might not have considered it.

Ashley Madison made it possible

to connect with a whole bunch of other people

who wanted the exact same thing

that you do...

which is sort of the catch-22

of the Internet in general, right?

It's always giving us exactly what we want

but that's not always a good thing...

Especially if you really like shoes.

[telephone ringing]

STEFANY: There would be these phone calls...

and there'd be no one on the other end.

[intense music]

I had a Facebook friend request

from someone I don't know.

And so I messaged her. I said, "Hey, do I know you?"

And she goes, "Oh, no. I'm just

"you know, I see we're both moms.

"I just like to be friends with other moms

and bounce ideas off each other."

It was, like, all these weird things

that were happening

that just didn't make sense.

What is going on?

And then it was December 27th.

My husband left to go to the grocery store.

And while he was gone, I get this phone call.

[telephone rings]

And it was this woman asking to speak to Stefany.

And I said, "This is her."

And she just tells me she's been having

an affair with my husband for the last 18 months.

He had told her, "I'm gonna work things out with my wife."

And she said, "Oh, hell, no, you're not."

And so that's why she called me.

I was shaking. I was just so...

My mouth had gone dry. My heart was racing.

And I just couldn't believe what I was hearing.

[thunder rumbling]

And when I asked her how they met

she wouldn't tell me.

And then for some reason, I just blurted out

"Was it Ashley Madison?"

And she said, "Yeah."

[upbeat romantic music]

CHARLES: Ashley Madison works

from a business-model standpoint because their goal

is not to get you to leave your marriage.

Their goal is for you to have an affair

go back to your marriage, come have another affair.

So it does what it's supposed to do

from a business perspective.

PAUL: Our business model has stayed the same

since we launched.

It's a credit-based system where men come on

purchase a set amount of credits

to send messages to women.

If you were a woman seeking men, though

the site was free for you to use

because those users were precious.

Ashley Madison wanted to attract

as many heterosexual women as they possibly could.

[laughs]

Oh, my God. I have all these guys messaging me.

And you're just thinking to yourself

"How can there be this many guys

looking for an affair?"

MICHAEL: There's a certain level of excitement

that goes with it.

Even, like, the potential

that there's, like, some risk there

that's gonna be exciting to some people.

Being in their home?

That's not really a fun thing for me

because I glance over his shoulder

as we're going at it, and there's his wife

and their wedding pictures on the wall.

A lot of men will use a picture of their penis

as their profile photo.

My biggest fear was that someone I knew

would be on the site.

You know, I was so scared of seeing a coworker

or, like, a cousin or my dad. I mean... [chuckles]

Ashley Madison... [sighs]

Was, like, the least of many evils.

And even then, you still shook your hand

with the Devil, because...

everything about that site is skeezy.

[carnival music]

PAUL: This was a business

in the business of affairs, in the business of adultery.

And people were so shocked and surprised it existed

or even had been conceived

that, you know, there was a lot of backlash

and a lot of pushback from the media.

[upbeat music]

[cheers and applause]

So imagine you're a married man or woman...

Mainstream advertisers don't want to run their ads

so they can't get the exposure that they need.

But all that changes with the arrival of a new CEO.

[audience shouting]

Wow. Okay.

So are you as outraged as our audience is

or curious and racing to your computer?

He has no shame in it.

He will go anywhere

to sort of sell this company.

Please welcome one of the most hated men on the Internet

founder and CEO of ashleymadison.com

Noel Biderman.

-Welcome, Noel. -Thank you.

Okay, obviously, you're hearing

a reaction from our audience

that doesn't sound too positive.

They've never done that before, by the way...

-Right. First time ever? -To anybody.

Once Noel Biderman became CEO of Ashley Madison

that's when the company started really getting

a lot of media attention.

The intent of the site is monogamy is difficult

for a lot of people 'cause it's not in your DNA.

That's just a fact. We're all human. It's just not in our DNA.

-Well, it is for a while. -No. It's not in your DNA.

-So let's just cheat and-- -This is end times.

And so the bottom line is, in this country in particular

you guys were talking about it earlier

we put monogamy as this central tenet of a marriage.

And that might be really unhealthy.

He knew that his business was already controversial.

Encouraging people to have affairs. What?

You can practically see people

clutching their pearls from that.

Ashley Madison didn't invent infidelity.

We all know that, so I'm saying that

instead of having an affair in the workplace...

Instead of having it on a singles' dating site

to an unsuspecting person...

Instead of going to visit an escort

go to a community like Ashley Madison

where everyone has the same expectation.

And so he played into that.

Don't avoid it.

Their apparent philosophy was, "Let's lean into that.

Let's be as in your face as we can be."

I'm assuming that if the spouses find out

that this is happening

that it's gonna break up a lot of marriages.

And you're facilitating that.

MAGGIE: And, of course, it's advertising, right?

Some people's philosophy is

all publicity is good publicity.

And, certainly, for somebody with a business model

based on controversy,

based on, you know, going against the wind

sure, sure, that made perfect sense.

He didn't care hat kind of publicity it was

as long as it got people saying "Ashley Madison."

But I think people that have a conscience and a soul

don't want to make their money this way.

In other words, I might make money selling drugs

but I wouldn't want to contribute

to somebody's death and demise.

Where's your soul in this? Where's your conscience?

It's the same argument. It's like--

You want to look the young kids in the eye

when these parents get a divorce?

It's the same argument you could make and then say

"Oh, divorce attorneys are profiting from divorce

and we should get rid of divorce attorneys."

-It's not logical. -It's not the same thing.

You have flawed logic in your point.

It's exactly the same thing. We know this happens.

I didn't invent infidelity.

It was around a lot longer, long before Ashley Madison

You are pimping it.

Noel doesn't care

because apparently his website crashes

and there are tons of people

trying to get on the Ashley Madison website.

And so he says, "You may not like me

but your viewers need me."

Are you ever bothered by what you do for a living?

I've been called pimp, a virtual drug dealer

the most hated man in America.

I think that all comes back to the same root.

The topic of infidelity is vastly misunderstood.

And it was just catnip for the media

and he just got tons and tons of press attention.

You've seen this play out.

What does it make you feel like?

CLAIRE: Sometimes a guest would come on.

I remember there was a "Tyra Banks" appearance

where there was a man who...

I guess his wife had cheated on him.

-When you watch... -I feel terrible.

This pain, this man's pain.

How do you feel me coming and kicking your ass right now?

How would you like that? That's how I feel right now.

I feel like coming right up there

and knocking you out, bud.

That's my emotions that are running.

CLAIRE: He was happy to go on there and do that

and replicated that strategy over and over

because he knew it would get attention for Ashley Madison.

You need to learn to communicate with her better

and find a relationship that works for the two of you.

That has nothing to do with me.

Noel Biderman is a PR genius.

AMANDA: You can't really be comparing yourself

to a marriage counselor, since you are more likely

to break up a marriage than help it stay together.

Oh, I would disagree wholeheartedly.

I would say Ashley Madison

saves millions of marriages through its service.

People don't want to leave their marriage.

That's why they have an affair.

Noel's high-profile strategy is high risk.

He, of course, had a lot of enemies.

They stepped on a lot of toes.

[intense music]

STEFANY: He admitted to it. He apologized.

[dial tone droning]

But I felt like it was one of those apologies

that he's more or less upset he got caught.

I'm yelling at him, cussing at him

screaming at him.

I come unglued.

To hurt me and our family so devastatingly

was just so hard to get over.

And then you add the Ashley Madison layer

on top of it...

I ended up asking my husband for the username and password.

I just had to see, like, what is this all about?

And he had a fake name, and I saw the other woman.

Her pictures were on there.

And she was married, has three children.

According to his profile

he was really looking forward to that fun sex

that comes after a hot date.

And he has a really high sex drive.

He just wanted to feel that spark again

and that excitement that you get with new sex.

And so I kick him out.

I'm like, "You need to stay in a hotel, so go."

And then I went a little crazy.

I threw a bunch of his stuff out on the front lawn.

I tore up his favorite Seahawks jersey.

I just went nuts.

[barks]

I sold my wedding rings a week later.

That gave me enough money to pay for a divorce attorney.

I moved out a month later

and I was 41-year-old single mom

with a 5-year-old.

I remember asking if he's in love with her.

And he said no.

You know, he said, "I'm never gonna talk to her again."

And they have been together almost ten years now.

[elevator bell dings]

In the past few days, I have begun to atone

for my private failings with my wife, Silda,

my children, and my entire family.

I'm deeply sorry that I did not live up

to what was expected of me.

SUNNY: Eliot Spitzer was the New York Governor.

He was a crime fighter

and he was married

and a lawyer

and ran on a platform of family values.

[indistinct chatter]

But we learned that he was paying women

to have sex with him.

And he found himself in a heap of trouble.

[indistinct chatter]

He shouldn't go and maybe solicit prostitutes.

He could have gone on a service like ours.

So Ashley Madison takes out a full-page ad

in the "New York Post"

which is read by everyone, by the way.

And it says, "We hate to say we told you so

but you should have used ashleymadison.com."

A lot of people thought that our approach

to sending this kind of open mail, open email

to the state of New York and to him

was, you know, innovative.

I mean, genius?

Mad genius?

Really horrible person?

I don't know.

But at that point, no one liked Eliot Spitzer.

But people knew now about Ashley Madison.

[laughter]

PAUL: One of the other ways we had to look

at promoting our business was through billboards.

It was a great way to reach a broad audience

that both reached the consumer directly

but also reached the media.

And, yes, they were provocative

and humor was always at the core.

♪ Make me hot baby ♪♪

CLAIRE: They would often run billboards

congratulating the person for having an affair.

I remember they did that with Newt Gingrich.

And the media would run a news story

with a big shot of the billboard on TV.

Everyone who watched that segment

just saw free advertising for Ashley Madison

and kept it fresh on everyone's mind.

♪ Oh yeah you're the best baby ♪♪

When I first started working there, it was exciting.

It was new.

I was fresh-faced, bright-eyed

bushy-tailed, ready to go.

Hello.

No, no, I'm not busy.

Our approach to creating ads

it was more for the shock value.

And the crazier they were, the better.

[chuckles]

WOMAN 1: Have you ever found yourself

on a really bad blind date?

[phone beeping]

WOMAN 1: Now imagine that date

lasting the rest of your life.

We would sit down and just sort of...

shit out ideas until something looked fun.

Yeah. I have to go. [clears throat]

Happy anniversary, honey.

Essentially it was, you know

just balls to the wall to crazy town

and get something out that would generate

as much interest and shock as possible

and really just get people to go to the site.

Whether or not they signed up, we just want that click.

[snoring]

MAN 1: Most of us can recover

from a one-night stand with the wrong woman.

Those Ashley Madison ads work, obviously.

WILL: Yeah. -Because that programming...

especially into men, that, like

"Oh, the old ball and chain"...

MAN 1: [chuckles] But not when it's every night

for the rest of our lives.

"I'm trapped with this dumb bitch," like--

That one-night-stand one for sure, yeah.

MAN 1: Isn't it time for ashleymadison.com?

No, absolutely didn't care if they get banned.

For us, it was almost, like, a point of pride...

[laughs] Because if you did an ad

then got pulled, it was like, "Yeah."

[chuckles]

[growls]

[growls]

CHRIS: We were clever.

And we had a lot of fun just throwing ideas

at the wall and see what sticks.

[snoring]

CHRIS: Were our ads always designed to be controversial?

Almost always.

Because shock and awe were how we got

our audience in the first place.

All of these shocking advertisements

help Ashley Madison break into mainstream

but they still have a problem.

You still have to log in through your personal computer

which means your browser history

can be seen by anybody in your household.

But a product is about to launch

that will be a game-changer for Ashley Madison.

And iPod, a phone...

[laughter]

And an internet communicator.

An iPod, a phone...

[cheers and applause]

Are you getting it?

[cheers and applause continue]

These are not three separate devices.

This is one device.

[cheers and applause]

And we are calling it iPhone.

CHARLES: Steve Jobs, unbeknownst to him

changed the entire world of dating.

And this is where, I think

Ashley Madison really flourished

is because when you have access on your laptop

you have to be sneaky.

But when you have access on your phone

all you have to do is go to the bathroom

and lock the door.

So for keeping privacy

I don't make it overly complicated, alright?

The more overly complicated you make something

the more likely you are to screw up.

So you just have to be comfortable

with the fact that at any time you could get caught.

He hadn't told me about his video doorbell.

So his wife watched me come to the door, knock

and go inside.

And so we're sitting there naked

and she calls him, and she's all

"Hi. Who was that girl at the door?"

I made a real effort

to never message in front of him.

Like, every time I went to the bathroom

or every time that he left the room

well, I was on my phone messaging my lovers.

But I was very careful

to not do it in front of him.

By the way...

it's sometimes amazing to me that I've been able

to keep this quiet for as long as I have.

♪ ♪

NOEL: To us, the perfect affair

is meeting someone and not being discovered.

And so we have built the product that gears

towards the not being discovered

unlike if you used, say, Facebook to have an affair.

The fascinating thing about this business

is that in order for it to work

discretion and privacy are key.

And the more the company grows

the more difficult it becomes

to keep this data secret.

NOEL: The anonymous way you sign up

the discreet nature of our communication platform

the billing being secretive

and, ultimately, things like our ghost delete

which allows you to recall

every message or photo you've ever shared

and we even blow it off our own servers

which, by the way, sit in a remote location

kind of untouchable.

So I think we do everything we can to protect privacy.

Was security lax? Yeah.

I had a friend in IT

who would consistently complain about the lax security

and how easy it would be for someone to get past it.

I don't know if it was not a priority

or just it was not cost-effective

but whatever was not done was never done.

"No one's gonna hack us.

That just doesn't happen in the corporate world."

CEOs are not necessarily responsible

for everything that happens at a company.

Sometimes they're figureheads.

But he became the company and reveled in it.

Shh.

He became the face of Ashley Madison.

They became one and the same.

He felt like a winner.

COREY: So I went the opposite route with dinner.

I went for the humble caponata

topped with the least-expensive fish I could find

which was mackerel, which is a great fish.

And that's what we're gonna top it with now

little fried mackerel.

PAOLA: A very close friend of mine

who, at the time, was a food columnist

was doing a regular column

where he had, you know, a range of notable people

come to his house for dinner and he would make them dinner

and record the conversation

and then write something about it.

So Ashley Madison said

"Would you like to have our CEO, Noel, and his wife

"come over to dinner at your house?

And you can chat and write a story."

And so he messaged me and said, "Hey, so the Ashley Madison guy

"wants to come to dinner in my house.

Do you want to come?"

I mean, who's gonna turn that down?

The menu was affordable, everyday food.

So he had, like, nachos and all of these things.

PAOLA: Are the truffles going on the nachos?

COREY: No.

NOEL: Let's do that!

And so Noel and his wife showed up

with another woman with them.

And she had this plastic cooler.

And all of a sudden, she opens it up

and puts out all of these truffles

and the little tiny scale.

And then he bought...

I actually don't know how much money's worth

of truffles he bought, but it was delicious, actually

and possibly the most expensive nachos

I've ever eaten in my life.

COREY: What does marriage mean to both of you?

They were actually really open and friendly guests.

And he let himself be grilled

over nachos and wine.

NOEL: Well, we, I'm hoping still centralize

our marriage around monogamy.

That's the expectation we have of one another.

I don't know if that's the right expectation

and I certainly don't believe it's necessarily the healthiest

thing anymore for people. I think it causes strain.

I think the data's pretty evident that couples

who remove that strain of monogamy

they just don't seek out divorce nearly as often as couples

who seems to cling to monogamy.

So, it's just fascinating.

He is a very persuasive person.

And he says things with such conviction

and he makes his arguments

in a way that, you know, makes it sound like

"Of course this is the rational explanation.

"And anybody who doesn't understand that

is just missing the point entirely."

Please welcome Noel and Amanda Biderman.

Welcome.

Noel, you're actually a real-life hot topic.

PAOLA: It was really interesting

because Noel has been the kind of figurehead

for this company, the public face of it.

And often he would bring his wife.

BEVERLY: Is there any other dinner conversation

that you're able to have when you're at a friend's house?

No, this seems to be the topic of choice.

BEVERLY: Yeah, I'm thinking. -Yeah.

Well, you're an interesting person.

-Oh, thank you. -That's not fair.

PAOLA: I remember her talking about how stressful

an experience that was for her

to have to be there with your husband

who is being made to be

the poster child for infidelity essentially.

The point is, is that it's a business

and it's really separate from our life.

I'm really troubled by the fact

that he gets his wife involved.

Now he's blurred the line

between his own family

and this tawdry business.

Amanda, though you don't believe

that infidelity is a good thing ultimately

you are involved with this company.

You weren't in the beginning, but you're now the face

of the advertising for it.

And then there you are.

So if you thought smoking was bad for you, would you appear

on a billboard that promotes smoking?

So where was the shift for you in terms--

I think I would. It's a business.

I think if you polled the audience

everybody's gonna say they disagree with cheating.

I mean, people don't do it and don't believe in it.

So, you know, having myself up there

in my mind, it's gonna spawn on some conversations

amongst married people

who don't even talk about this issue.

CHARLES: Infidelity is a huge trigger.

The moral police come out the moment you say it.

TIGER WOODS: I was unfaithful. I had affairs.

I cheated.

What I did is not acceptable.

Ashley Madison took some incredible risks

using public figures and tying into the news.

MALE REPORTER: It's all very messy.

This new report from the Florida Highway Patrol

shows Woods' car plowed into bushes

a curb, a fire hydrant

and then a neighbor's tree before stopping.

And these new photos of the crash site

show the damaged tree

and the window his wife said

she bashed in with a golf club.

Probably thought he was a better guy than he is, then.

And I would probably just have to apologize to her

and hope she uses a driver next time and then a 3-iron.

CHRIS: Is there a limit to the things we would market

for our own gain?

No.

If it could generate revenue and shock

let's give it a go.

When there was a prominent sex scandal in the news

one thing that they often did was offer to make the person

a paid spokesperson for Ashley Madison.

It didn't matter if they ever accepted

if they had any interest in doing that at all.

Just the fact that they said they had made the offer to them

would be enough for the media to pick up on it

and run a story.

MAN 2: Howard Stern presents

The Tiger Woods' "Mistress Beauty Pageant."

I didn't know it was gonna be this good.

And you girls all look hot with these bathing suits.

And, Jesus Christ, this guy was having some party.

Do you miss him?

I do.

CHARLES: The stunts that Ashley Madison pulled

I would call that type of marketing

brilliant, parasitic advertising.

Here's our guest judge, Noel Biderman.

He bought his way into the contest.

But the dude put up 100 grand.

It's the American way to buy your way

into these kinds of events, isn't it?

If you have to tie into somebody else's pain

to raise yourself up...

No, come on. That's just bad.

Again, I need a, I just need a second shower.

It's just bad.

HOWARD: You are Tiger Woods' mistress. You are.

Here comes Noel Biderman with a check for $75,000.

What do you want to say, Noel, from ashleymadison.com?

How ironic that Ashley Madison

can bring some comfort to a mistress left in the dust.

But, you know, I'm happy to do it.

There's no bar for him.

Everything's on the floor.

He doesn't know what low is.

He will do anything to sell his product.

CLAIRE: Noel liked to paint a picture

that people were coming to Ashley Madison

from hearing about it from his various publicity stunts.

In reality, Pornhub and other affiliated sites

were big drivers for new sign-ups.

MAGGIE: It doesn't surprise me

that he took them out on Pornhub.

I mean, why wouldn't he?

The guy is watching porn. He gets horny.

"Oh, look, Ashley Madison. Maybe I'll join up."

You know, thinking with the little head.

It was a lot of leaning into the male fantasy.

They were the ones who forked out the cash

and therefore they were the ones we had to target.

In one month in 2011

70,000 new male members were reached through MindGeek.

MindGeek owns sites like Pornhub and others

a very big pornography conglomerate.

When you look at the membership detail

for 2015

you can see that there are 27.5 million men

and just over 4 million women.

[sighs] It's astonishing.

Women were the bait

and men were the fish that needed to be caught.

Everything was geared around monetizing men

off of the back of women.

I messaged some people, and I bought some credits.

It became apparent quite quickly

that there wasn't a glut of lonely women.

It feels like you're among a sea of men

all heads bobbing around and waving.

And there's one or two desert islands

a lady with a few thousand men to pick from.

I definitely had to interact with

or send messages to fake profiles.

You know, you try to figure out

what is most likely a fake profile.

And very often that can be, like, photos that seem unreal

too glossy.

It doesn't seem likely that somebody's

having professional pictures taken

so they can put it on their profile

for Ashley Madison, you know?

[glasses clink]

JEREMY: If you're trying to entice men to spend money

you need to have a product.

And the product was women profiles.

What I discovered was that there are

hundreds of thousands of fake female profiles.

CHRIS: Was I suspicious about the number

of real women on the site?

Absolutely. From start to finish.

We would do profiles that we were going to use

for advertisements and the like

which would then end up getting put on the site, too.

And then you would see these profiles and go like

"Wait a minute."

[chuckles] "This looks oddly familiar."

And that was the beginning of my going

"This is kind of weird. Why are we doing this?"

CHARLES: So let's face it

it was only going to be a matter of time

before a group of frustrated men

were going to start complaining

about their experiences on Ashley Madison.

FILIPPO: In my field

it's always the "David versus Goliath" battle.

We always go against big companies.

And Ashley Madison looked like a viable case.

Ashleymadisonsucks.com was a place

for people to voice their displeasure

with Ashley Madison.

And the owner of ashleymadisonsucks.com

began receiving attacks.

Someone emailed him

pretending to be his girlfriend.

They emailed his girlfriend pretending to be him.

And it just became

very violent verbally, very bully-ish.

[train rumbling]

And I decided to get involved and to stand up for them.

There were threats made against me

against my family at the time.

I was called a wetback.

I was called an immigrant.

A lot of sexual innuendos were put in posts.

There was a significant period of time

where myself and my ex-wife moved out of our house.

We were scared that somebody was gonna hurt

either us or our dogs.

And every time you'd see a car park near your house

that you didn't recognize, it was scary.

There was quite a bit of hiding

and spoofing that was going on...

meaning that these attacks

were coming from unknown sources.

[distant siren wails]

Ashley Madison had started

a trademark infringement claim

against ashleymadisonsucks.com.

But we quickly showed that it was legal

to have a complaints website.

And there was a separate attempt

to close down ashleymadisonsucks.com

NOEL: Give me the URL back. It's my domain.

or I'm gonna make your life miserable for you.

I'm going to make you miserable like you've never felt before.

A phone call between Noel Biderman

and the owner of the website...

NOEL: So don't be a schmuck.

Give it back. I offered you ten grand, you're being an ass.

NOEL: I didn't do anything to anybody.

I sent you a message saying call me.

In this phone call

Mr. Biderman outright threatened him.

NOEL: You're a little punk. You're a punk.

You have my URL, you have my brand.

Take the money and go away, or

I'm gonna do whatever I need to do

to make you regret ever messing with me.

Just wait for the world of hurt I bring on you. Just wait.

You can make a choice.

Either you're gonna go after this guy

and this company and try to do what's right

but lose everything you have...

or pull back.

And it's a bullying tactic.

And, unfortunately, at the time, it worked.

MAGGIE: I discovered that Ashley Madison

had bought the domain.

Ashley Madison Sucks

and expanded the site with positive testimonials.

That's brilliant. It was a brilliant business model.

Unethical as hell but brilliant.

Ashley Madison should be able to prosper

no matter where it plants its flag.

By 2009, they're doing extremely well.

And so now it's time to rule the world.

Now it's time to go international.

There's really no marketplace

that we can't see us expanding into.

They wanted to do what every tech company wants to do

which is scale.

We're on a quick race

to about $200 million in annual sales.

With out profit margin, that makes us

an extremely valuable property.

They felt that they were unstoppable

and that Ashley Madison

was untouchable.

FILIPPO: Let's just say that if you do bad things

bad things will happen to you.

Yeah, karma's a bitch.

It's Monday morning.

Some of our teams open up their laptops

and there was a message.

Somebody wanted us to shut our business down.

"Shut it down."

Fuck you.

[laughing]

If I saw the man

who is in charge of Ashley Madison right now

I'd say "Fuck you. How do you sleep at night?

"Your site's disgusting and gross

"and it hurts a lot of innocent people.

"I don't care what you say.

I think you're a horrible human being."