WASHINGTON (AP) — Credit card numbers and other personal information about more than a hundred contributors to a conservative Web site unexpectedly showed up by fax at a Democratic lawmaker’s office.
Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., said over recent weeks his office has received 139 faxes from ExposeObama.com, a Web site run by the National Campaign Fund, a political action committee. The faxes included the names, addresses, e-mail addresses, credit card information and employment information of donors.
The information, which included contribution amounts, was attached to an e-mail urging lawmakers to oppose health care legislation backed by Obama and congressional Democrats.
“This apparent breach of personal information could easily lead to these individuals falling victim to identity theft if placed in the wrong hands,” Stupak, chairman of a House subcommittee on investigations, said Friday.
Stupak said he contacted the individuals to warn them that their personal information may have been compromised and wrote a letter to Floyd Brown, a conservative activist who is chairman of the National Campaign Fund and runs the Web site. Stupak told Brown he was concerned that “they may also be sending it to others, thus compromising the identities of the 139 individuals.”
Brown did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The faxes were addressed to 50 lawmakers, including Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and Senate. The form letters tell lawmakers the “American people are counting on you to stand firm and stop ObamaCare once and for all.”
Brown is a longtime conservative activist who was behind the “Willie Horton” ad that criticized Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis during the 1988 campaign.
