--- title: White House Officials Duped By 'Email Prankster' description: Several White House staffers were reportedly fooled by a self-styled "email prankster" based in the U.K. who posed as other officials canonical: https://time.com/4881849/white-house-email-prank/ author: Kevin Lui article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-01T08:24:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:48:48.399Z article:section: Politics og:title: White House Officials Duped By 'Email Prankster' og:description: A cybersecurity advisor dished out his personal email address og:url: https://time.com/4881849/white-house-email-prank/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5cd6fc2dbe15dda/6988d7eebc6cfc7d7d3e2778/gettyimages-823202778.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: President Trump Speaks To The American Legion Boys Nation And American Legion Auxiliary Girls Nation og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: White House Officials Duped By 'Email Prankster' twitter:description: A cybersecurity advisor dished out his personal email address twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5cd6fc2dbe15dda/6988d7eebc6cfc7d7d3e2778/gettyimages-823202778.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # White House Officials Were Duped by an 'Email Prankster,' Report Says > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Kevin Lui](https://time.com/author/kevin-lui/) ## Kevin Lui Aug 1, 2017 8:24 AM UTC  White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the White House on July 26, 2017. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the White House on July 26, 2017. Mark Wilson—Getty Images by [Kevin Lui](https://time.com/author/kevin-lui/) ## Kevin Lui Aug 1, 2017 8:24 AM UTC A number of White House officials were reportedly[ fooled by a self-styled “email prankster” ](http://edition.cnn.com/2017/07/31/politics/white-house-officials-tricked-by-email-prankster/index.html)based in the U.K. who posed as other senior White House figures to solicit responses. On one occasion, an official in charge of U.S. cybersecurity mistook the prankster as President Donald Trump’s son-in-law [Jared Kushner ](http://time.com/4860646/jared-kushner-security-clearance-trump/)and disclosed his personal email address unprompted, CNN reports. “Tom, we are arranging a bit of a soirée towards the end of August,” the prankster wrote to Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert from an Outlook email account purportedly belonging to Kushner, reports CNN. “It would be great if you could make it, I promise food of at least comparible (sic) quality to that which we ate in Iraq. Should be a great evening.” Bossert replied: “Thanks, Jared. With a promise like that, I can’t refuse,” Bossert reportedly answered, then went on to provide his personal email address without being prompted. CNN said it had obtained copies of the emails in question, parts of which were also shared by the prankster on Twitter under the handle @SINON\_REBORN. The mystery emailer also posed as other administration figures, including Eric Trump and Russian ambassador-designate Jon Huntsman. Masquerading as former White House Chief of Staff [Reince Priebus](http://time.com/4879523/john-kelly-donald-trump-chief-of-staff/), the anonymous prankster also engaged in a lengthy exchange with Anthony Scaramucci, who at the time was serving as the White House Communications Director before being fired Monday. **Read More:** [_Anthony Scaramucci Out as White House Communications Director_](http://time.com/4881241/anthony-scaramuci-white-house-communications-director/) White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders acknowledged the incident, telling CNN that the administration takes “all cyber related issues very seriously” will be “looking into these incidents further.” The individuals involved in the email exchanges, however, declined to comment. The prankster, who refers to himself as a “lazy anarchist” in his Twitter bio, carried out similar shenanigans earlier this year, emailing several bank executives to see if he could elicit a response. “I try and keep it on the humorous side of things,” he told CNN. “I’m not trying to get the keys to the vault or anything like that.” Experts told CNN the prank highlighted just how vulnerable officials are to spear-phishing tactics, which are among the most common techniques used by hackers to gain access to users’ private information. John Podesta, then campaign chairman for former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, infamously fell for a similar phishing scam that gave hackers a direct line into his emails. Luckily for the White House, this messenger does not appear to have had any ill intentions. \[[CNN](http://edition.cnn.com/2017/07/31/politics/white-house-officials-tricked-by-email-prankster/index.html)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4881849/white-house-email-prank/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4881849/white-house-email-prank/"},"headline":"White House Officials Were Duped by an 'Email Prankster,' Report Says","datePublished":"2017-08-01T08:24:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:48:48.399Z","description":"A cybersecurity advisor dished out his personal email address","url":"https://time.com/4881849/white-house-email-prank/","keywords":["cybersecurity","Internet","White House","jared kushner","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5cd6fc2dbe15dda/6988d7eebc6cfc7d7d3e2778/gettyimages-823202778.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kevin Lui","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/kevin-lui/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5cd6fc2dbe15dda/6988d7eebc6cfc7d7d3e2778/gettyimages-823202778.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Speaks To The American Legion Boys Nation And American Legion Auxiliary Girls Nation","caption":"President Trump Speaks To The American Legion Boys Nation And American Legion Auxiliary Girls Nation","creditText":"Mark Wilson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/cybersecurity/","name":"cybersecurity"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4881849/white-house-email-prank/","name":"White House Officials Were Duped by an 'Email Prankster,' Report Says"}}]}] ```