Prime Minister Cameron gets a prank call
British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday security would be reviewed, but no harm had been done, after an apparently drunk hoaxer claiming to be the director of Britain’s eavesdropping agency was put though to his mobile phone.
Cameron had been walking near his home in central England on Sunday when his BlackBerry phone rang and he was told there would be a conference call with Robert Hannigan, the head of Government Communications Headquarter, or GCHQ.
“A voice came through, a voice I didn’t recognise. The voice said he was sorry to wake me up, which I thought was strange as it was 11 o’clock in the morning,” Cameron told reporters.
“So I quite rapidly asked ‘who is this?’ to which the answer came ‘it is a hoax call,’ and so I pushed the red button on the BlackBerry which ended the call.”
Hours earlier, GCHQ was also tricked into handing over Hannigan’s mobile phone number after apparently being fooled by the same hoaxer, although the government said it was not a phone used to discuss sensitive or confidential information.
Cameron’s spokesman said security procedures would now be reviewed and all government departments had been put on alert for further hoax calls.
