British Foreign Secretary David Cameron fell victim to a hoax call with someone pretending to be former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, the Foreign Office said in a statement.
Cameron held the call after exchanging text messages with the man claiming to be Poroshenko, who served as Ukrainian president from 2014 to 2019, the Foreign Office said in a statement.
During the conversation, the Conservative politician became suspicious and eventually stopped answering his interlocutor’s questions, it said.
“Whilst the video call clearly appeared to be with Mr. Poroshenko, following the conversation the Foreign Secretary became suspicious. Contact details for others were requested and, given his concerns, the Foreign Secretary stopped responding,” according to the statement.
The British government said it went public as it feared that the video could be used in the future and to raise awareness of this risk.
Cameron is the latest European politician to fall victim to this type of misinformation related to the war in Ukraine. The British government said in 2022 that the Russian government was behind hoax calls to former U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace and Home Secretary Priti Patel.
Last fall, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni fell victim to a trap by Russian comedians who were pretending to be with the African Union.