A data scientist has figures he claims show the site generated fake profiles
Jeremy Bullock, says the fake users, known Ashley Angels, were used on a huge scale
They even started chats to create the illusion they wanted a relationship
But these messages were found to be generic and computer-generated
Up to 80 per cent of new members spoke with people who didn’t exist, according to Bullock
Graphs show that the ‘engager’ profiles doubled monthly revenue
Ashley Madison has constantly denied it set up these automated users
By WILLS ROBINSON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 08:06 EST, 29 September 2015 | UPDATED: 15:30 EST, 29 September 2015
A data scientist has uncovered what he says is proof that Ashley Madison created tens of thousands of fake accounts to dupe members into paying for its services, in a scheme that would have almost doubled the website’s revenue.
According to statistics seen by Daily Mail Online, 40,000 profiles were set up on the affair site using just six email addresses owned by the website’s operators on two separate days.
It follows claims in previous reports that the extra-marital dating network tried to hide around 100,000 of these so-called ‘engager’ profiles – sometimes referred to as Ashley Angels – from users, so they believed they were talking to real people.
If true, this means the real number of ‘available’ women was drastically reduced, while the website’s monthly revenue was almost doubled by the ‘engagers’, as members have to pay to read their online messages.
