You can be surprised what the human greed can do, I mean some people are just too greedy that they would do anything just to claim some free money they feel is real but there is one clear note in today world which is the fact that nothing is actually free and whenever you are flagged with some kind of free means to acquire money, it is definitely a scam project but the only thing is that some people still tend to tell themselves lies just to be in the deception that they can actually claim such free money.
I remember that long time ago when just having an email made you the most knowledgeable person in all things related to technology among your group of friends, a friend of mine was incredibly happy and I could not help to ask him why that was the case, and he told me he had won 10k on the lottery, I was happy for him but as soon as he explained to me that he got an email that said this I told him it was a scam, at first he could not believe it but after I asked him about whether or not he bought a lottery ticket everything clicked to him, so it is not surprising that when a person receives a message stating they received a big airdrop they immediately believe it and try to claim it, since this is the reaction the majority of the people will have and they will not stop to think if this makes sense or not.