In the era of online dating, there is no shortage of Tinder horror stories. But this elaborate, mass date scam might actually take the cake.
A New York woman duped dozens of men into meeting her for a "date" at the same time. The men all arrived at Union Square, expecting to meet their hot Tinder date for a DJ set. What they found instead is both hilarious and tragic.
Natasha Vaponte matched with dozens of men on Tinder. Each man's experience went in much the same way.
First, he messaged with Natasha, who flirted and sent him her Instagram page. Then he received a message about how Natasha was extra busy at work these days and would message him when she had more free time.
A few weeks later, he got a message from Natasha inviting him to a DJ set at Union Square.
The lucky man was supposed to meet Natasha by the stage, go get a drink, and then "see what happens" — wink-face emoji.
Instead, he arrived to see that 150 to 200 other men had showed up to meet with Natasha, too, and she had a Hunger Games-style evening in store for them all.
One of the men who matched with Natasha told the entire story on Twitter.
The man, Twitter user @bvdhai, matched with Natasha a few weeks ago. She had "no bio" but seemed "fairly innocuous."
After messaging back and forth for a bit, Natasha told @bvdhai that she was swamped with work and would get back to him in a few weeks.
Thinking nothing of it, he never expected to hear from this mysteriously hot girl with 4,000 Instagram followers again.
But to his surprise, she actually did reach out and invited him to a DJ set at Union Square.
Him and dozens of other men, apparently.
Spencer M. told Gothamist that he showed up to the date, too. He saw a sea of other men.
"There were hundreds of guys waiting for this DJ, but little did I know they were waiting for her as well."
"[We were] all kind of looking at each other trying to figure out the situation," yet another date, Amir Pleasants, told the New York Times. "That’s when we know we kind of got set up.”
Then Natasha showed up.
To their shock, Natasha approached the stage and took the mic.
Natasha announced that the men were there to compete for the chance to win an actual date with her.
"The gist of it was she wanted to do Live Tinder. Folks were pretty mad," another date, Nicholas, told Gothamist.
"And she started calling the different characteristics she doesn't like. 'If you're Puerto Rican and support Trump leave!' 'If you have a long beard leave.' Then she did a competition."
Natasha had men race each other and do pushups to compete with each other for a date with her.
"The majority of the group, like 95 percent, were like aaahhh, watching as the f***ing idiots fell in line to her demands to do push ups and run…She did a live swipe line, right and left. I left at that point," Nicholas said.
He wasn't the only one.
While a lot of men left after realizing that it was a dupe, some men actually stayed and played.
Natasha appeared to have security guards and staff helping her with the show.
A viral video producer, Rob Bliss, has since claimed responsibility for the stunt.
Before it all started, Natasha posted an Instagram story on her account with a rather ominous caption.
Is this the worst stunt ever or the best stunt ever? I honestly can't decide.
