The UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, has been the victim of a hoax video call with someone claiming to be Petro Poroshenko, the former president of Ukraine, it has been revealed.
A number of text messages were exchanged followed by a brief video call between Lord Cameron and someone purporting to be Poroshenko, the Foreign Office said in a statement.
Poroshenko served as Ukrainian president between 2014 and 2019 and has remained a prominent figure in Ukraine since leaving office.
The Foreign Office 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.
“The department has now investigated and confirmed that it was not genuine and that the messages and video call were a hoax. 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.”
Explaining why the statement had been released, the Foreign Office said manipulation of the “information environment is becoming ever more present”.
“Whilst regretting his mistake, the foreign secretary thinks it important to call out this behaviour and increase efforts to counter the use of misinformation,” it said.
Politicians have received repeated warnings in recent months about the growing threat of misinformation and disinformation, especially as artificial intelligence (AI) technology improves.
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Earlier this week broadcasters said that on election day channels would not be able to warn viewers about deepfakes and misinformation. ITN’s chief executive, Rachel Corp, said “we’re going to be flooded” with AI-created propaganda in the run-up to polling day.
In 2015 Cameron revealed how he had detected a hoax caller after answering his BlackBerry during a family walk in his Oxfordshire constituency. He realised that the call from a man claiming to be the then director of GCHQ, Robert Hannigan, was fraudulent and ended it. The then prime minister said no sensitive information had been disclosed and a review would be carried out.
