The Importance of Verification Codes in Two Factor Authentication

It is certainly plausible that this is somebody used to hold the number that the receiver of these messages now holds. But it's also entirely possible because of my lack of faith in humanity. That this is a scammer who is either trying to scam the person who currently holds the phone. They have all the information to break into the account. They have the phone number, but they don't have the verification code. Perhaps the original account holder has given up their phone number. And this person who's receiving these messages does have it. If you're receiving these messages, you have no way to verify that the person sending you that text message has a legitimate reason to access your account.