News International Hacking Scandal Widens: Ex-PM Gordon Brown Said Private Info Stolen

The British phone-hacking scandal keeps swirling seemingly without an end.

According to a report from BBC News, former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown was targeted by the Sunday Times, a newspaper that is owned by News International, which also owned the now-defunct News of the World tabloid.

The Sunday Times allegedly sought to retrieve personal information –- including financial and property data -- on Brown during the time he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

A front-page article in the Sunday Times once mentioned that Brown had purchased a property from media mogul Robert Maxwell at a “knockdown price.”

BBC reports that someone from the Sunday Times posing as Brown called his bank, Abbey National, to get his private financial information.

Abbey National officials wrote to the Sunday Times editor John Witherow to suggest it suspected that someone from the Sunday Times or acting on its behalf has masqueraded as Mr Brown for the purpose of obtaining information from Abbey National by deception.

Brown also is concerned that the paper may have obtained private medical records relating to his son, Frasier, who reportedly suffered from cystic fibrosis.
The alleged crime is known as “blagging” – which means knowingly or recklessly obtaining or disclosing personal data or information without the consent of the data controller.
Blagging has been illegal since 1999.

News International has not responded to the newest tawdry revelations.