The British government has confirmed that Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron fell victim to a prank phone call from an imposter posing as a former Ukrainian president, marking another instance of a high-ranking official being deceived in such a manner.
Lord Cameron reportedly grew suspicious of the prankster when the impersonator, claiming to be Poroshenko, requested contact details of other senior British ministers. Consequently, the foreign secretary terminated the call, which reportedly took place within the past few days, The Telegraph reports.
“Contact details for others were requested and, given his concerns, the Foreign Secretary stopped responding.
“The department has now investigated and confirmed that it was not genuine and that the messages and video call were a hoax.”
The same duo had previously deceived former Home Secretary Priti Patel and ex-Culture Secretary Nadine Dories into engaging with them under false pretenses.
The government chose to disclose the recent prank on Lord Cameron to alert others and to preempt any attempts to misuse video footage from the call.
“We are making this public in case the video of the Foreign Secretary is manipulated and subsequently used, and to ensure that others are aware of this risk.”
“Whilst regretting his mistake, the Foreign Secretary thinks it important to call out this behaviour and increase efforts to counter the use of misinformation.”
