I’d say that the prevalence of marketing hacks out there have made people let their guard down. We assume businesses will lose money on purpose to gain traction

I’d say that the prevalence of marketing hacks out there have made people let their guard down. We assume businesses will lose money on purpose to gain traction to the degree that when we see deals like these, we jump at it without a second thought. No doubt there’s technical engineering that went into this scam, but the social engineering and manipulation of the target’s psychology is the real secret sauce.