Of course it's a fake story. It's a tried and true method of farming karma: write the most rage-inducing (read: engaging) story you can possible come up with, post it on r/AMITheAsshole (or similar ragebait subreddit), and just watch the upvotes come.
It's called bait for a reason, and it's why most popular subreddits are not good places to hang out anymore.
To what end? Fake internet points just for the high score?
Or are these future scammer accounts building credibility?
I just don't understand ragebait, seems like a waste of everyone (including OPs) time, with no tangible reward.
This. There's a whole market for high-karma old Reddit accounts. If it has a comment history that makes it look like a real person is behind it, even better.
Buyers are usually companies looking to astroturf their product/service, or scammers.
Google "buy reddit account" and see how many results there are.
First it's a great way to practice your story writing. Instant feedback, and a way to measure impact.
Second, it's to create fake accounts with real post histories so that they can be sold. There is a lot of strategies and work behind this approach.
Sold accounts then look "real", so when real people endorse product X on r/buyitforlife or AskReddit threads about "what product's quality has gone down?" it looks like actual people and not a targeted marketing effort.
Long stories also make for good consensus building by hammering points that are relevant to socio-political discussions. Like when the Woke was riding high during 2016-2018 there would be constant discussions in r/relationships, AskReddit, TwoXChromosomes, etc. about abuse, to keep people constantly talking and thinking about gender issues.
You can also create "tailing" or "follow-on" accounts that post replies to the obviously BS stories, including those that post "lol what a load of BS", as that builds their history, too, and you can steer opinion by having a few of those supporting shillbots make outrageous claims for (or against) the story, and then disprove them in ways that leads the audience into intellectual positions that the posters want.
It's nice to have my opinion, suggestions, thoughts, etc validated with upvotes.
I'm not sure I'd get the same effect from a totally fabricated story. But that's just me...
It's called bait for a reason, and it's why most popular subreddits are not good places to hang out anymore.