Updated 2:14pm NetSafe is receiving several reports a day from kiwi users of Ashley Madison who are now being targeted by blackmailers.

The website which people use to cheat on their partners was hacked months ago, but it's taken time for blackmailers to sift out individual targets.

They're asking for money ranging from $600 to more than $5,000 in Bitcoin currency for their silence.

NetSafe Executive Director Martin Cocker said there's a variety of different tones to the emails, but they're all basically the same.

"They are receiving an email which says that they've been traced, that there is data on Ashley Madison leaked that relates to them, and if they pay that won't be released publicly."

Netsafe doesn't pass complaints to police because the cyber criminals would be almost impossible to catch.

Mr. Cocker has warned New Zealand users of the site not to pay. He claims it's too late and there's really no way to stop the information being made public.

"It's a public data set, so there's absolutely no guarantee that paying will decrease the possibility of the information being made public. In fact, paying the ransom is likely to make you more of a target and just receive more and more requests for money."

That could see the level of blackmail stepped up.

Police say they've had three complaints about blackmail attempts linked to the site in the past month.