A case of similar names has led to an author in New York City being mistaken for the lawyer defending a politician facing International Criminal Court charges.
As reported by Gothamist, Nicholas Kaufmann, spelled with two Ns, has been inundated with Facebook messages meant for Nicholas Kaufman, spelled with one N. While two-N Kaufmann is a Brooklyn-based writer of horror and thrillers, one-N Kaufman is the attorney representing Rodrigo Duterte, the former president of the Philippines who’s been accused of crimes against humanity by the ICC.
“The messages were just saying things like ‘good luck’ and ‘God bless,’ or ‘bring our beloved president back home, Mr. Attorney,'” Kaufmann says.
Upon realizing what was happening, Kaufmann pinned a post explaining that he is not actually representing Duterte.
“I thought that would handle it, but instead that gave them a place to congregate in the comments,” Kaufmann says. “Some of them didn’t believe me, some of them were like, ‘Oh, you can’t fool us, Mr. Attorney, we know it’s you.'”
Kaufmann has since made his Facebook private, though he’s seen Duterte’s supporters follow him to Instagram.
“So it’s possible they might just follow me around,” he says.