Been seeing such stories being a millionaire in their teens quite rampant lately. Though we cannot remove the fact that it is possible these days, but the majority is like a trap created by them either to lure more people to join their community or promote a scam.
I recall a Youtuber sharing their millionaire status, but later as people investigated the said person just play it smoothly by renting houses, pretending to be rich.
A lot of people in the web2 and web3 space do it a lot, they call it "faking it to make it". But we know that these things are actually what makes them popular and makes people want to follow them.
You're right, most of the time, it's just about creating a scam they can sell.