Two members of the Ashley Madison adultery website are believed to have committed suicide and others have become victims of extortion after hackers published their details online.
The dating company is now offering a $500,000 reward for information on the hackers.
A TV3 presenter has now also, inadvertently, been caught up in the drama.
Broadcaster Duncan Garner is a happily married dad, but for the past few days other women - married strangers - have been emailing him wanting to meet up.
The women are members of Ashley Madison. But Garner didn't sign up.
"I actually don't know how they got it, I don't know how I appeared on their list, I don't know who signed me up or how I've been signed up, I have no idea whatsoever.
"I'm married, happily married, I don't need Isabella or Cocomama, I don't need that coming at me to be honest."
So his account is fake, but the fallout for other actual members is very real.
Canadian police are now investigating the suicide of two members who had their details leaked by hackers.
Toronto Police Acting Staff Superintendent Bryce Evans says it "isn't fun and games anymore, this is reality".
"The social impact behind this leak, we are talking about families, we're talking about children, we're talking about their wives.
"It's going to have impact on their lives. We now have hate crimes as a result of this there are so many things that are happening."
The Ashley Madison hack was revealed on July 20 by a group called the Impact Team. It demanded the adultery dating site stop operating.
A month later they released the details of around 32 million users - there are 22,000 Kiwi members.
Canadian and US police, FBI and US Homeland Security are also investigating. There are fears email addresses and credit card information could fall into the wrong hands.
3 News
