A dating website for extra-marital affairs is being sued by a former employee who claims that writing hundreds of fake profiles left her with health problems.

Doriana Silva is seeking $20m from Ashley Madison, a dating website whose slogan is “life is short, have an affair”. She claims she was tasked with creating 1,000 fake profiles for the Portuguese language version of the site.

“The purpose of these profiles is to entice paying heterosexual male members to join and spend money on the website,” reads Ms Silva’s statement of claim.

She did not question the activity, and was led to believe “that doing so was some sort of a normal business practice in the industry,” the statement alleges.

Channel 4 News reported on the use of fake profiles in the internet dating industry a year ago, and was told by one source that their use was widespread.

Claiming she was given only three weeks to complete the work, Ms Silva says she was left with severe wrist pain and has been unable to work since 2011.

Ashley Madison said it tried to help Ms Silva on several occasions. The company said her claim is “without merit” and accused her of making “extortionary demands”.

“Our service is 100 per cent authentic, as described in our terms and conditions, and we resent any implication otherwise and are certain we will be both vindicated and victorious in court,” the company said in a statement.

The suit was filed last year, but was delayed while Ashley Madison requested that “unethical practices” be removed from the claim. But the judge ruled that it described “the factual context in which the injuries were sustained”.

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