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Hacker releases Donald Trump’s personal information, but it’s been online for months

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Kansas City, Mo., Saturday, March 12, 2016. AP Photo/Nati Harnik

The online war against Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump continues to evolve.

On Thursday, a hacker claiming to be affiliated with Anonymous posted personal information and contact details allegedly belonging to the billionaire.

But the information – including a social security number and a New York City cellphone number – was leaked online months ago.

In fact, it was the same number Gawker published back in August 2015 in response to Trump publicly releasing South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham’s cellphone information.

READ MORE: Anonymous declares ‘total war’ on Donald Trump

For their part, Anonymous, who declared war on the reality TV star earlier this month, has been encouraging hackers and members of the public to help take down Trump’s websites using Denial of Service Attacks (DDoS). Using the hashtag #OpTrump, the group aims to “crash” the website of Trump’s Chicago hotel – TrumpChicago.com – on April 1.

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The organization seems to be disputing claims that the hacker involved in this latest leak is associated with the group. According to a statement posted to an Anonymous affiliated Twitter account, the so-called leak did not come from a credible source.

When asked if the group had obtained Trump’s updated personal details the group responded, “If we have it we will drop it, not going to make false promises to our followers unlike some using the Anonymous name.”

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Anonymous first declared war on Trump in December, after the Republican called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” During that campaign, the group took responsibility for taking down the Trump Tower New York’s website using a DDoS attack.

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