US author: I'm not Duterte's lawyer!

(UPDATE) AN American author on Tuesday night said he had been receiving messages from Filipinos who think he was the lawyer of former president Rodrigo Duterte.

In a Facebook post, Nicholas Kaufmann, who is a thriller and horror book author, said there were messages thinking he was Duterte's counsel, Nicholas Kaufman.

"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!" Kaufmann wrote.

On top of his Facebook page was an angry post from the author, saying he and Kaufman are not the same people.

"People of the Philippines, I am not the [International Criminal Court] lawyer Nicholas Kaufman who is representing President Duterte! Please stop messaging me!" Kaufmann wrote in a post dated March 21.

He explained in the more recent post he was swarmed by pro-Duterte commenters.

"They started out pro-Duterte, but lately I'm getting some anti-Duterte commenters from the Philippines who are apologizing for the others and calling many of them bots," the author said.

"Nearly 700 people reacted to my pinned post explaining that I am not Duterte's ICC defense lawyer and yet I'm still getting hundreds of followers from the Philippines every hour!" he added in another Facebook comment.

Human Rights Watch senior researcher Carlos Conde asked why Duterte supporters should even care about the spelling of the name.

"They don't care that Duterte killed thousands — why should they care about the extra N?" he asked on Wednesday.

Kaufmann is known for his horror novels, including "The Stone Serpent," "Die and Stay Dead," and "The Mind Worms."

Three of Kaufmann's novels were nominees for certain book awards, "Chasing the Dragon" was nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award and the International Thriller Writers Award, while "100 Fathoms Below" was a nominee for the Dragon Award, and "General Slocum's Gold" was a nominee for the Bram Stoker Award.