TORONTO — FidelityDating, a website that caters to those who have been cheated on, might eventually come in handy for millions of people whose spouses appear to be have been outed by hackers for signing up to have an affair on the Toronto-based website Ashley Madison.
READ MORE: What we know about the Ashley Madison data dump
According to an exclusive Global News analysis, the list of people subscribed to the site includes 600 federal government email addresses. A total of 163 subscribers appeared to have used the @forces.gc.ca domain assigned to the military. Sixteen came from the RCMP. And 118 came from Ontario’s Ministry of the Attorney General, which administers the province’s courts.
READ MORE: RCMP, military email addresses in Canadian Ashley Madison data
Ashley Madison, which uses the slogan is “Life is short. Have an affair,” is the polar opposite of FidelityDating and its “Love is precious. Stay Faithful,” tagline. Thousands have joined the latter (currently free) site since it launched this year. It currently has less than 5,000 gay and straight singles, who range in age from their mid 20s to 70s.
Each new member has to pledge the following: “By signing up you agree you are not in a relationship. You will be honest and faithful.” While of course there’s no real way to verify that, co-founder Julie Surrey believes taking the pledge makes people “more accountable and aware.”
“We are building a support community which is different than any other dating site.”
“There are no guarantees but if someone wanted to cheat they would most likely go to a cheating site,” she said, describing those sites as “vile” and “disgusting.”
Surrey and her business partner Gary Spivak have both suffered the trauma of being cheated on. The two have channeled that heartbreak into this venture, which they eventually hope to expand into an online support group.
“We are already receiving letters from members who tell us that they just found out their spouse was cheating and they are devastated and not ready to join a dating site,” said Surrey, “but that they are grateful to know we are here when they are ready.”
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