At least two people may have committed suicide following the hacking of the Ashley Madison cheating website, Canadian police say.

Key points: At least two people may have committed suicide following the Ashley Madison hack

At least two people may have committed suicide following the Ashley Madison hack The hack has sparked extortion attempts

The hack has sparked extortion attempts Australian authorities are assisting the investigation

Australian authorities are assisting the investigation Canadian lawyers launched a lawsuit seeking some $760 million in damages

The attack on the dating website for married people has sparked extortion attempts and Toronto police warned of a ripple effect of scams directed at clients desperate to stop the exposure of their infidelity.

The data dump contained email addresses of United States government officials, British civil servants and workers at European and North American corporations, taking already deep-seated fears about internet security and data protection to a new level.

Avid Life Media Inc, the parent company of the website, is offering a C$500,000 ($524,183) reward to catch the hackers.

"Your actions are illegal and will not be tolerated. This is your wake-up call," Toronto Police acting staff superintendent Bryce Evans said, addressing the so-called "Impact Team" hackers directly.

"To the hacking community who engage in discussions on the dark web and who no-doubt have information that could assist this investigation, we're also appealing to you to do the right thing.

"You know the Impact Team has crossed the line. Do the right thing and reach out to us."

Police declined to provide any more details on the apparent suicides, saying they received unconfirmed reports on Monday morning.

"The social impact behind this (hacking) — we're talking about families. We're talking about their children, we're talking about their wives, we're talking about their male partners," Supt Evans said.

"It's going to have impacts on their lives. We're now going to have hate crimes that are a result of this.

"There are so many things that are happening. The reality is ... this is not the fun and games that has been portrayed."

Australian authorities assisting in investigation

Toronto police along with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Ontario Provincial Police, US Homeland Security and the American FBI are investigating the hack, dubbing the probe "Project Unicorn".

Australian and Canadian privacy watchdogs are also jointly looking into to the data breach.

Supt Evans also said the hacking had spawned online scams that fraudulently claimed to be able to protect Ashley Madison clients' data for a fee.

People were also attempting to extort Ashley Madison clients by threatening to send evidence of their membership directly to friends, family or colleagues, Supt Evans said.

In a sign of Ashley Madison's deepening woes following the breach, lawyers last week launched a class-action lawsuit seeking some $760 million in damages on behalf of Canadians whose information was leaked.

Supt Evans said Avid Life first became aware of the breach on July 12, when several employees booted up their computers and received a message from the infiltrators accompanied by the playing of rock group AC/DC's Thunderstruck.

The company went to police several days later, Supt Evans said, while the hackers went public on July 20.

Anyone in Australia experiencing suicidal thoughts can call Lifeline Australia's crisis helpline on 13 11 14

Reuters/AFP