Anonymous OpTrump: Group claims to publish Donald Trump’s already public personal information

The claim is likely to lead to increased scepticism about Anonymous, which many commentators have criticised for their much reduced power

Supporters of Anonymous have claimed to have hacked and released Donald Trump’s most personal information, but that same data has been online for weeks.

The group declared “total war” on the Republican hopeful, promising to “dismantle his campaign”. And now the first information from the restarting of what it called “OpTrump” has begun, with what it says is a huge leak of data.

The information was shared with a new video calling it a “gift of sorts”. Anonymous supporters were sharing “Trump’s Social Security number, cell phone number and other details that might be able to assist you”, the video claimed.

But that information — which includes what is claimed to be Mr Trump’s social security number, as well as publicly-available details like the contact details of his agent — has been available online for months. A search for the information on Twitter shows it being shared as far back as January.

It isn’t clear whether the information was ever entirely real, but the number included in the post is no longer answered. Some of the other data does appear to be true but is also widely available on the internet.