UK foreign minister fooled by hoax call

Britain’s foreign minister David Cameron has been the victim of a hoax video call from someone claiming to be the former president of Ukraine, officials said.

Cameron had a short video call with former Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko, who was president from 2014 to 2019, but later became concerned. The hoax was being made public to alert others of the risk and ensure the video was not “manipulated and subsequently used”, a Foreign Office statement said.

A number of “text messages were exchanged followed by a brief video call between the foreign secretary and someone purporting to be Petro Poroshenko”, according to the statement issued on Friday. “Whilst the video call clearly appeared to be with Mr Poroshenko, following the conversation the foreign secretary became suspicious and stopped communication.”

The statement did not say when the call took place.

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