Leaked emails show senior Coalition MPs tricked with iMessage.
A series of leaked emails appear to show senior Coalition MPs falling victim to a simple iMessage hoax by someone claiming to be the education minister Christopher Pyne.
Stefan Postles / Getty Images
An person wishing to remain anonymous contacted BuzzFeed News yesterday after members of the public started trolling government MPs with a barrage of iMessages. Several media outlets reported that parliamentarians believed their iPhones had been the victim of a "hack". But it was a simple hoax.
Several hundred people were contacting parliamentary Apple devices via iMessage, by using the publicly available email accounts of a few dozen MPs. It created a storm of activity over Apple iPhones and iPads in the halls of power yesterday afternoon.
One person claimed to set-up a fake Gmail address to impersonate the leader of the house, Christopher Pyne and contacted justice minister Michael Keenan.
Lukas Coch / AAP Images
Mr Keenan appears to send a legitimate response to the "fake" Mr Pyne who was questioning him how the party room could push back against foreign minister Julie Bishop's emoji use. The iMessages show Mr Keenan confused, and then he sends the ghost emoji.
There is a clear political motivation behind the hoax. BuzzFeed News asked the anonymous source why she spent her Monday peppering government MPs with iMessages.
She pointed out that iMessages were sent with a fake '@gmail' address and not an '@aph' address: "These people don't understand the internet, how the hell can they legislate for it??"
