Pistorius Facebook fund-raiser is fake: team

Oscar Pistorius’s communications team has warned that a Facebook page using the athlete’s name to raise money from supporters is a fake and asked for it to be taken down.

The “official” Oscar Pistorius page is sending supporters a message asking for funds to cover his legal fees for his murder trial, spokeswoman Anneliese Burgess said Tuesday.

“They are soliciting money from unsuspecting ‘followers’ who have not yet come to understand that this page is run by an imposter pretending to be ‘TeamOscar’,” Burgess said in a statement.

“We have been trying to close this page down for weeks now, but have had no success with our direct approach to Facebook,” she added.

The message follows Pistorius’s announcement last week that he will sell the $465,000 (335,000 euro) home where he shot his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, to cover lawyers fees said to be $9,000 a day.

“We are asking all Oscar Pistorius friends to find it in their heart to contribute financially. All payments will be paid back upon sale of property,” the fake message reads, according to the team.

AFP could not independently verify the message.

The impostor page has also asked people to unfollow a Twitter account dedicated to his murder trial — @OscarHardTruth — and follow a fake one instead.