Ashley Madison: No holding back by Kiwi blokes

The Herald on Sunday team received a number of suggestive photos. Photo / Getty

After two weeks of hacks, leaks and embarrassing revelations from the files of Ashley Madison, you'd be forgiven for imagining that the site would no longer be popular.

However, within minutes of logging into Ashley Madison using an invented female persona, the Herald on Sunday found that there were plenty of Kiwi men still looking to use the embattled service to find new partners or conduct affairs.

Men from all over New Zealand contacted us, sharing email addresses, cellphone numbers and work details.

In some cases, identities were easily discovered.

In just five days we received 29 messages, 43 men sent us their photos and more than 100 men "winked" at us — a function of the site that allows users to show interest in other's profiles.

We didn't wink back.

It appears that very little of the interest expressed on the site is reciprocated with new information gleaned from the hacked files showing that 99 per cent of all female profiles on the site were not what they seemed.

Set up by the site's owners, these profiles offer prospective suitors just enough encouragement to pay for the service and give up those crucial private details, including some intimate photographs.

For those not familiar with the often graphic world of online dating, the sharing of photos on the site can be confronting.

As an introduction, some of these budding Romeos sent close-up photographs of their genitals.

In five days of using the service, we received multiple messages of this nature, all sent by men who are surely now in full knowledge of the insecure nature of the website.

The risk of losing their marriages, careers and reputations doesn't seem to be enough to stop many Kiwi men from pursuing phantom women on the internet.