On Tuesday, a video has gone viral purporting a 26-year-old French tourist named Natalie Amyot to be desperately searching for a man she met at a one night stand in Australia. The man, she found out weeks later after returning home from vacation, had gotten her pregnant. Today, it turns out the video of Natalie Amyot is a hoax.
The video had gone viral quick, garnering over 1 million views after the alleged Amyot posted it online. On Wednesday, a day after the "French tourist" posted the Natalie Amyot hoax video on YouTube, the 26-year-old came clean and said the whole thing was a marketing ploy set up by Sunny Coast Social Media in Queensland.
The original Natalie Amyot hoax video claims that the girl spent a three-month vacation to Australia, where she spent her last night at Mooloolaba on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. Amyot went on to say in her video that she spent her last night at an Irish bar, after which she met a "really cute" guy whom she spent the night with. The next day, the day she was allegedly scheduled to fly home, she got the man's mobile number and they bid their goodbyes. However, the girl lost the man's number.
Fast forward six weeks, the girl in the Natalie Amyot hoax video said she found out she was pregnant. The viral video was her taking steps on a mission to locate the "cute guy" from the one night stand. Amyot even went back to Australia to create the video, where she asked people who may know the guy to reach out to her since she has no family of her own.
Following the Natalie Amyot hoax video's upload on YouTube, it had been viewed over 1 million times. By 11am Wednesday, more than 870,000 people has already watched the YouTube video. It had also been shared heavily via social media.
Filmed against the sunny backdrop of Mooloolaba Beach, the Natalie Amyot hoax video gained global coverage, even getting picked up by media in the United Kingdom, Europe and United States, according to the Brisbane Times.
While many viewers offered words of encouragement, many had also been sceptical of the entire story, according to The Inquisitr. Adding to speculations is a June 2014 photograph being shared showing a woman who looked remarkably like Amyot, but her name is Michel. In the photo, Michel is seen with two other friends in Mooloolaba.
Even on social media, Natalie Amyot was tagged with a relative who appeared to be her cousin from Melbourne. A further investigation on Facebook would reveal a number of Michel's relatives living in the Victorian capital, reported The Daily Mail.
On Wednesday, naysayers were found to be correct after "Amyot" uploaded a new video today named "I found him." The video opens with Natalie claiming "I found him," after which she is joined by owner Andy Sellar, who introduces himself as a viral video marketer.
Sellar reveals to the public that the Natalie Amyot video was indeed a hoax and that the girl hadn't really gotten pregnant during a one night stand. In fact, she was only an actress they hired for a video marketing plan to get the word out about Mooloolaba.
"This has been a viral video for Holiday Mooloolaba. My name is Andy Sellar and I own a company called Sunny Coast social media," Sellar said. "We do viral videos for businesses. Now I know there is going to be a lot of you that are upset by this... maybe not too happy."
You can watch the "I Found Him" video below.
