MANILA – “It’s insane!”

An American author found himself in the middle of a social media mix-up as supporters of former President Rodrigo Duterte sent him a deluge of messages.

They apparently mistook him for Duterte’s lawyer at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands.

The two men’s name sounded the same.

The author’s name is Nicholas Kaufmann and his last name is spelled with double letter n.

Duterte’s counsel’s name, on the other hand, is Nicholas Kaufman and his last name is spelled with a single letter n.

On his Facebook account, the author describes how overwhelmed he is following the surge in the number of  messages he received.

“I am being absolutely flooded today with followers and commenters from the Philippines who, I guess, don’t believe I’m not Duterte’s lawyer,” Kaufmann recently posted.

“Our names aren’t even spelled the same (he’s Kaufman with one N). It’s insane,” the author narrated his experience.

In the comment section of the author’s post, a certain Alex Kaufmann, whose surname is the same as the author, asked: “Are they pro or anti?”

The author replied that at first, the messages came from Duterte supporters.

But then, he started getting comments from persons who are against the former president as well.

The senders of anti-Duterte messages were saying sorry to him.

They told the author that some those behind the pro-Duterte messages were supposedly just bots or trolls.

“They started out pro-Duterte, but lately, I’m getting some anti-Duterte commenters apologizing for the others and calling many of them bots,” he said.

Kaufmann is a horror, urban fantasy and adventure fiction author.

He wrote a critically acclaimed piece called General Slocum’s Gold for which he was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award.

He also wrote Chasing Dragon for which he was nominated for the International Thriller Writers Award and the Shirley Jackson Award.

He was also nominated for the Dragon Award for 100 Fathoms Below.

Meanwhile, the counsel of Duterte – Nicholas Kaufman – is a British-Israeli lawyer.

He is one of the few accredited attorneys of the ICC.

In 2020, Duterte supporters made a similar mistake when they spammed a “DDS Confession” Facebook page.

It turned out that it was the page of Daisy Dales Senior Secondary School in India.

In reaction, the owner of the page posted: “For the love of whatever you guys worship—Please stop.”

READ: DDS confessions Facebook page from India wrongfully attacked by Duterte cult online

Asia News Network/Philippine Daily Inquirer