A WikiLeaks-style website has revealed the real names, birthdates and professional names of 15,000 past and present American adult movie actors.

The amateur website is causing concern among performers because some prefer to hide their acting careers from family members and employers.

Pornwikileaks.com, which has been inaccessible for several days, is registered in the Netherlands but it is not clear who owns the website.

The actors’ details apparently came from the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation (AIM), an STD-testing facility based in the San Fernando Valley, north of Los Angeles.

Adult film directors and producers can use the database to check whether actors are certified healthy to work.

The story was broken by adult entertainment blogger Mike South. He claimed that people who had used certain performer names solely for testing at AIM had appeared on the list, while actors who had never tested at the centre did not.

Mr South wrote: “If you have ever tested at AIM you may want to call them, or better yet send them a certified letter demanding that all of your info be removed from their database. Even though the damage is done, it is clear that AIM has no direct knowledge how it happened so it could and probably will happen again.”

He added: “I doubt that AIM actually sold the database, more likely it is just a case of lack of security, allowing someone who shouldn’t have had access to be able to dump the whole database, likely with address and birthdate and other info as well as name.”

The website does not contain actors’ health information. However, in some cases it includes their addresses and aerial Google Maps photos of their homes.

AIM has responded that it does not hold performers’ addresses.

Only around a tenth of the 15,000 performers are thought to be currently working in the industry – meaning that many more are expected to have found new employment.

In recent months, two US teachers have been fired after their past employment in porn films came to light.

AIMS released a statement yesterday to say it was investigating the possibility of a criminal breach of its medical database but did not hold actors’ addresses.

The company said: “AIM Medical Associates PC is investigating the possibility of a criminal breach of the medical record database. Substantial amounts of information posted on the site in question could not come from the AIM database because we do not possess that information.

“Specifically, home addresses and identification documents are not within the AIM database. Other testing businesses may or may not have such information on their databases.”

AIM added: “In any case, the malicious nature of the site cannot be overstated. It is reprehensible that the site characterises all adult actresses as ‘whores,’ and refers to some women as ‘baby killers.’ It is gratifying that the website has been largely unavailable at least over the past few days. We hope the hosting company removes this scurrilous site altogether.”

In October, the porn industry was shocked when 24-year-old actor Derrick Burts contracted HIV after working on gay and straight adult film sets.

He has since called for condoms to be made compulsory across the industry.