A Twitter thread about one woman duping dozens of men into a battle over her affections went viral over the weekend, but what seemed like the Tinder scam of the century might actually be part of a bigger project about modern relationships.
Rob Bliss, owner of the viral video agency Rob Bliss Creative, said he orchestrated this project and plans to release a video detailing the entire story on Thursday. Bliss' company previously produced the viral video 10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Woman, which has since garnered nearly 50 million views on YouTube.
“All I can say is the project/video is about gender, dating, and technology issues, and the absurdity of modern/app dating,” he said via email.
The story picked up steam online Sunday when one of the men involved, Twitter user @bvdhai who goes by the name Mikhail Budhai on social media, shared his experience.
"I am about to tell you an epic tale about subterfuge, dating in the 21st century and the fall of human civilization. This actually happened to me and it could happen to you too," he tweeted.
In the now-viral thread, Budhai described meeting a woman — identified by the Gothamist as Natasha Aponte — on the popular dating app. He says the two chatted for a while before Aponte mentioned she was busy working on a “huge presentation” for work and suggested meeting up in a few weeks.
Budhai said he suspected she was “ghosting” him but, two weeks later, Aponte suggested meeting up in Union Square to watch a friend’s DJ set. He showed up, surrounded by a crowd of about 100 others. When Aponte arrived — and promptly headed to the stage — it became clear something was up.
“As you may or may not know, my name is Natasha, and I have a confession to make for everyone here,” she said in a video posted online by the DJ Nick Am. “Everyone here was brought here today to be on a date with me.”
Aponte went on to explain that the reason she did this is because “dating apps are very difficult.”
“I said, ‘OK, how do I solve this problem?’ Maybe I can bring everyone here in person and solve this once and for all,” she said.
At this point, after what Budhai called “a Hunger Games speech about what it's gonna take to date her,” he said he left. Several other men stayed to play, he said.
Aponte began eliminating potential suitors by telling men with certain qualities to leave. She asked people in relationships, Trump supporters, men under 5-foot-10 and anyone named Jimmy, among others, to hit the road.
Next was the physical elimination.
Before the video ends, Aponte can be heard telling the remaining contenders the next challenge is a push-up contest.
“This is an interesting project, right?” she said. “Aren’t you excited to see how this turns out and who actually wins the date?”
Other men online have shared their encounters with 'Natasha' as well. Matthew Raymond Guzman, a Queens hip hop artist known as MRG, said he first started chatting with Aponte more than two months ago. He said he can understand why some guys were upset that the date turned out to be a prank, but he was more impressed than anything else.
"I’m just like, 'woah I just met the Kanye West of cat-fishing.' She just really got me and all these other guys," he said. "I thought it was a really smart marketing idea for her brand."
Guzman said he left pretty soon after the competition began, but returned later with friends when things were winding down to show them what happened.
"I don't think anybody won to be honest," he said.
It wasn't until later, when a friend sent him the viral thread and he replied, sharing a screenshot of a text from Aponte.
"She really finessed all of us," he said.
