David Cameron became suspicious during the call and ceased responding.
UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron had been tricked into exchanging messages and having a video call with someone pretending to be former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. The interactions turned out to be a hoax, the Foreign Office (FCDO) said in a statement.
The Foreign Office mentioned that Cameron had a video call after exchanging text messages with a man pretending to be Poroshenko, who was Ukraine’s president from 2014 to 2019. During the conversation, Cameron grew suspicious and eventually stopped responding to the man’s questions.
“While the video call clearly appeared to be with Mr. Poroshenko, following the conversation, the Foreign Secretary became suspicious,” the foreign office said.
“The department has now investigated and confirmed that it was not genuine and that the messages and video call were a hoax.”
According to the BBC, the FCDO said it released details of the exchange publicly over fears it could be “manipulated.”
“Manipulation of the information environment is becoming ever more present. While regretting his mistake, the foreign secretary thinks it important to call out this behavior and increase efforts to counter the use of misinformation.”
The BBC further mentioned that it’s not the first time Lord Cameron has fallen victim to a hoax call. In 2015, Downing Street was forced to review security procedures after a bogus caller was put through to him when he was prime minister.
10 Downing Street said the caller claimed to be Robert Hannigan, who was director of the government monitoring agency GCHQ at the time. Lord Cameron ended the call when it became clear it was a hoax and no sensitive information was disclosed.