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case

A little harsh Kaiser :) The second and third examples are completely elective (opt in), but the first is more of an opt-out process because few people report it.

Kaiser

Case: admittedly, the analogy is only approximate. What's common among these situations is that each one depends on people either consciously or subconsciously making a decision that small numbers are not worth fretting about, and on the other side, a goal is achieved by aggregating little numbers.

twitter.com/jcukier

there are many such cons using mobile phones. In a memorable one a few years back in France, a scammer had called hundreds of thousands of phones but ever so briefly that his calls would only register as "missed calls". Out of curiosity, a small portion of those who got such calls did call back, and reached an overcharged number.
the rationale of the scammer was that those calls were voluntary, and that the costs to users were so small anyway that no one would bother complaining. Yes, but out of hundreds of thousands victims, you are likely to find a nitpicker who won't tolerate an extra cent on their phone bill. And this is how they eventually got caught.

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