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Only a few days after the Ashley Madison data was released and cybercriminals/ spammers are attempting to capitalize on everyone’s interest. One of the spam campaigns that we have been monitoring attempts to lure in victims by promising to provide a searchable “cheaters list”. The messages pose as CBS News alerts informing the recipient that the searchable list is now available online with a link to the site. Here's a look at the message:

The link in the message leads to a shady “background check” website where users overpay for access to information that was already publicly available. It is unclear whether the owners of the background check site were directly responsible for sending the spam or if it was the product of someone taking part if some form of pay-per-click affiliate program.

Many people have taken an interest in the Ashley Madison data, from curious onlookers to suspicious spouses or those with a guilty conscience. In addition to the copies of the user’s lists that are popping up around the internet, there are also lots of new sites that allow you to (or at least make the claim) check an email address to see if it is in the stolen data. In just a few minutes we were able to locate multiple websites where you could check an email address against the Ashley Madison hack.

However, before doing so everyone should be aware that there is nothing stopping the operators of these sites from logging your information and leveraging that against you in future attacks.