Amazon and GoDaddy are being sued for handling stolen Ashley Madison data by three of the affair-enabling site's customers.

Three John Doe plaintiffs have filed a complaint (PDF) against Amazon Web Services, GoDaddy, and 20 John Roes (anonymous defendants), in the Arizona District Court, for "intentionally inflicting emotional distress upon Ashley Madison users."

The plaintiffs want not less than $3m in damages or losses, and a jury trial to boot, and complain that the hack has resulted in them becoming victims to threats and extortion.

Following their hack of the extramarital affairs site in July, the Impact Team took to the net again in August to publish the stolen customer databases, and then some.

Suicides have been reported in the wake of the public disclosures, and now three Americans, one each from California, Maryland, and New Jersey, have made allegations against website operators and ISPs for hosting the stolen data to facilitate public searches, often for a fee.

There are 22 defendants in the case:

Amazon Web Services, Inc.

GoDaddy.com, LLC

John Roe 1, the owner/operator of ashleymadisonpowersearch.com and adulterysearch.com

John Roe 2 the owner/operator of ashleymadisoninvestigations.com

John Roe 3 the owner/operator of greyhatpro.com

John Roes 4-20 who "are unknown at this time, but are believed to be, among other persons or entities, additional Internet service providers and website operators trafficking in the Stolen Data"

All of the above are alleged to have:

The 20 John Roes are additionally alleged to have committed the crime of "intentional infliction of emotional distress".

Successful blackmail attempts against those included on Ashley Madison's customer database had managed to extort $6,400, according to research published last week.

Reg reader Dave got in contact with us following his receipt of a letter from blackmailers. Dave states that he was in the early stages of a divorce when he signed up to the site and "was separated... never paid, only looked at single women while deciding whether to pay to contact them, so zero fucks given." ®