YouTuber John Green says he was questioned by a “spy” after the Russian government hacked his email account for an unknown reason.
Green shared the news in a Vlogbrothers video on August 13 and revealed that “several years ago,” he and his brother Hank opened their email account to see a shocking message.
“Several years ago, you and I both got huge red messages from Gmail that said: ‘We believe your email has been accessed by a foreign government.’ We were both like, ‘That’s weird and unfortunate’ but then we moved on with our lives,” he said.
John explained that a few months later, he received a phone call from a friend with a “diplomat” buddy who wanted to meet him.
He got into contact with the friend through email, and when they met up at John’s office, the YouTuber noted that the diplomat’s job title, “special regional assistant for trade,” sounded a lot like the man was a spy.
“He looked at me with no response whatsoever, just dead, dead eyes. Absolute silence. The silence went on for so long that I took a long drink and then said ‘So what do you do?’ and then he said ‘I mostly work in intelligence.’”
John Green went on to share that the “spy” began asking him a ton of questions, including how much his mortgage is, his soccer team sponsorship, his family, and his working relationship with Hank.
“He [then] asks me if I’ve ever been to Russia, to which I say no. Then he asks if I’ve ever been critical of the Russian government,” John recalled.
“And then he says, ‘What I’m trying to understand is why the Russian government would be so interested in you and your brother that they would go out of their way to hack your particular email.’”
After the meeting, John called his dad to share the news of what had just happened. When they were done, his dad said, “Well, it sounds like they concluded you’re neither an asset nor a threat—just a dad from Indianapolis.”
John Green’s not the first YouTuber to be contacted by high-profile government officials, either. Back in July, Marques ‘MKBHD’ Brownlee revealed that the FBI contacted him after he had reviewed the Escobar phone.