One Direction were duped by an Internet troll this Christmas, who posed as Niall Horan in order to clock up fans on a Facebook page.

The person posed as Niall Horan on Facebook, claiming to be the Mullingar star. He wrote a message asking for 100,000 likes, saying he would give “$100,000 to the children’s hospital” in return.

The page quickly received over 100,000 “likes” from One Direction fans around the world.

But One Direction's management confirmed soon after that the message was not from the 19-year-old Mullingar native.

A band spokesperson said: “Yes, I’m afraid this is not Niall unfortunately. We will have Facebook shut this down."

Many Facebook users detected it was a false page.

One wrote: “Niall Horan doesn’t have a Facebook page, it’s not him. It’s some sicko using kids as an excuse to get ‘likes’. And because they don’t have guts they need a celebrity identity — aka Niall Horan. Don’t pay attention to it!!!!”

The blonde pop star returned to his native Mullingar for Christmas this year, after appearing on the US X- Factor.

He spent December 25 with his family tweeting: “Oi bobby horan [Niall's Dad]put on the dinner I am ready to go! Never been so ready for dinner in me life [SIC].”