Photo credit: Nicholas Kaufmann Facebook

Imagine waking up to hundreds of messages from people halfway across the world, all convinced you’re someone you’re not. That’s exactly what happened to American author Nicholas Kaufmann, who suddenly found himself at the center of an unexpected social media mix-up.

Kaufmann, a novelist from the U.S., was bombarded with messages from supporters of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who mistook him for Nicholas Kaufman (with one ‘N’), the real International Criminal Court (ICC) lawyer involved in Duterte’s case.

Clearly overwhelmed by the deluge of messages, Kaufmann took to social media to clear things up.

"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. Our names aren't even spelled the same (he's Kaufman with one N). It's insane!"

He followed it up with an all-caps plea to make sure people got the message loud and clear:

"PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, I AM NOT THE ICC LAWYER NICHOLAS KAUFMAN WHO IS REPRESENTING PRESIDENT DUTERTE! PLEASE STOP MESSAGING ME!"

It seems like a case of mistaken identity gone viral, and Kaufmann had to play damage control as messages kept pouring in. His post quickly gained traction, with some Filipino netizens amused by the confusion, while others apologized for the mix-up.

This isn’t the first time social media has caused unexpected chaos for someone with a similar name to a public figure. But for Kaufmann, it was a wild day of dealing with an inbox full of messages meant for someone else