His name is George Papadopoulos. Not that one. But the internet trashes him anyway

It’s 2017. When your name catches the attention of a big enough portion of the world’s population, an extremely reliable phenomenon follows: People try to find you on social media. And if all that attention is because you’ve done something that has made people mad, they’re going to insult you – sometimes worse – anywhere they can find you online. Your mentions become a personalized comments section of the worst kind.

But what if all those angry people who think they’ve found their target are wrong? It happens – ask Baltimore sportscaster Gerry Sandusky. On Monday, it happened again, this time to a financial planner who happens to have the exact same name as George Papadopoulos, the former Trump campaign adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to federal officials earlier this month.

When that plea was announced on Monday, some people started tweeting at @feeonlyplanner, a verified account for one George Papadopoulos that pops up in a Twitter search. That account belongs to the financial planner, who also contributes to a Wall Street Journal blog on wealth management, and not the former Trump adviser. The Trump-connected Papadopoulos doesn’t appear to have a verified account.

“When is your court date? You lied to the FBI for the liar in chief. This doesn’t end well for anyone associated with 45!,” one person tweeted, tagging Papadopoulos’s handle. Others followed suit.

Papadopoulos, the non-Trump one, was in Greece when the news about the Other Papadopoulos broke. He guesses he’s received hundreds, if not thousands of tweets on Monday - both from people who are mistaking him for the one in the news, and from those who are offering him support in this trying time to be a George Papadopoulos online.

“I am visiting my elderly mother in Greece to attend to some of her affairs and of course enjoying her home cooking,” Papadopoulos told The Washington Post in an email on Monday afternoon. “I had finished an amazing lunch dish she prepared for me and wanted to quickly check online how the morning was starting back in the US. And then the news hit. And the deluge started!”

At first, he tried to reply to every mistaken tweet, but “it became apparent pretty quickly that this was not humanely possible,” he said. So he tried to clarify to everyone that he wasn’t the guy they were looking for:

“For the nth time, I am NOT Trump’s foreign policy adviser! I have NO association with the Trump camp! NONE!”

But somehow, that tweet seemed to trigger another round of insults from random Twitter users who believed this Papadopoulos was definitely the one who pleaded guilty, and that his tweet was merely an attempt to distance himself from the Trump administration:

“Trump personally said you were in May 2016. Just another lie by the Fraud in Chief, or are you lying too?”

“Liar liar pants on fire.”

“You are going to jail for a very long time dude”

“Sir you were at one time and you are pleading FOR lying. So why should WE believe you?”

But in addition to all these confused insults, Papadopoulos said the tweet also got him a lot of support, including from other people on Twitter who share names with the famous or infamous:

“I feel your pain, George.” - John Kelly (@JohnKelly)

Eventually, Papadopoulos decided to explain what the heck was happening online to him to his mom.

“At first, my mother was proud because she thought I was very popular and made it to the White House,” Papadopoulos emailed to The Post, from Greece. “After I explained to her what happened in more detail, we just laughed about it. George Papadopoulos is a very common Greek name. Everybody knows one or two. I heard a joke in the local TV here how Greeks are so powerful they have a George Papadopoulos in the White House and the Kremlin!”

On Twitter, he’s more or less taking this bizarre situation in stride:

“All Mondays suck in general but this one is off the scales :)”

“I am NOT that guy! Visiting my mother in Greece now and can assure u I am getting so fat eating the dishes she makes me ... so no wiggling :)”

“I like to think positive: Gained many followers today!”

Good luck, George.

This story was originally published October 31, 2017 at 8:55 AM with the headline "His name is George Papadopoulos. Not that one. But the internet trashes him anyway."