Mark Carney is the latest major figure to be duped by an email prankster targeting the City of London

pulse

May 24, 2017 6:35 AM

As first reported on Tuesday afternoon by Financial News, Carney exchanged emails with the anonymous hoaxer on Monday, May 22, discussing a fictitious party.

Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England attends the quarterly Inflation Report press conference at the bank in London, Britain February 2, 2017

LONDON — Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has become the latest senior figure in British finance to fall foul of an email prankster after being drawn into an exchange with a man pretending to be Anthony Habgood, the chairman of the Court of the Bank of England.

As first reported by Financial News on Tuesday afternoon , Carney exchanged emails with the anonymous hoaxer on Monday, May 22, discussing a fictitious party.

The prankster got in touch with Carney from a free Hotmail email address — anthonyhabgood@hotmail.com, and invited the governor to a non-existent "Summer Nights themed soiree on Saturday 17th June," offering him "as much Martini as you can take."

Carney replied to the hoaxer — who has not been named, but tweets from the handle @Sinon_Reborn — three times, discussing the drinking habits of former governor Eddie George and the fictitious party, before replying "Not appropriate at all," when the hoaxer tried to steer the conversation to "dashing bar ladies" he claimed to have hired for his party.

Tweeting on Tuesday, the hoaxer revealed the full exchange with Carney:

News of Carney's emails comes just under two weeks after the same prankster duped Barclays CEO Jes Staley into thinking he was talking to the bank's chairman John McFarlane.

The person, who is reportedly a disgruntled Barclays customer, used a Gmail account to hold a brief exchange with Staley shortly after the bank's annual general meeting. On that occasion, messages were sent from a Gmail address with the username john.mcfarlane.barclays.

In that instance, they sent an email with the subject title: "The fool doth think he is wise," before criticising an individual shareholder who called for Staley to resign.

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