Comment by acomjean

I think they’re hoping for coincidences and the higher the numbers the more likely they’ll find one.

I got a real letter from the IRS two days before I got the scam message on my answering machine. The timing was uncanny and I might easily have fallen for it, had I not already dealt with it.

It’s the same for the Chinese language calls, if you speak Chinese it really resonates.

There was a scam in the 90s where you’d call a number and they’d give you sports betting advice. They’d do it for free as a promotion trying to sell their service when you won. They’d tell half the callers bet team A and the other half team B. The numbers made it work.

“Splitting games 50-50 like that—known in the biz as "double-siding"—is the oldest trick in the handicapper's very thick book. That way he knows he has at least some happy customers coming back. “

https://vault.si.com/vault/1991/11/18/1-900-ripoffs-the-ads-...