UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron falls for hoax call by 'former Ukraine president'

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron exchanged messages and held a video call with someone claiming to be former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, but the interactions were later determined to be a hoax, the foreign office said on Friday (June 7).

“Even as the video call clearly appeared to be with Mr Poroshenko, following the conversation the foreign secretary became suspicious,”the foreign office said in a statement.

“After the investigation, it is now confirmed that it was not genuine and that the messages and video call were a hoax.”

The statement gave no details of what was discussed during the exchanges, other than to say that the caller asked Cameron for others’ contact details.

The foreign office further stated that Cameron was revealing the hoax publicly to preempt any potential manipulation of the foreign secretary's video and its subsequent misuse, and to alert others to this risk.

“The foreign secretary believes it important to call out this behaviour and increase efforts to counter the use of misinformation,” the foreign office added.

It is worth mentioning that Cameron is not the first British foreign minister to be caught out by a hoax.

In 2018, the then-foreign secretary Boris Johnson discussed international relations with a hoax caller who pretended to be the Armenian prime minister.

(With inputs from agencies)