Quoted from bobukcat:"Scam" seems a bit harsh but I get your point.
AFAIK Houdini's number has been very straightforward they just started at or around 1000, I heard this from one of their distributors and my pretty-early production game is 1151. We've seen others report 14xx so it stands to reason they were well into the four hundreds, again it doesn't prove anything but all my dealings with the folks at AP make me trust them.
Mine was 359 (1359) and was built in June 2018. Got it August 2018.