Jonah Lehrer famously said "I'll never get caught, you can't catch me." and "If I get caught I'll eat my shoe." At least, that's what I've just made up and attributed to him.
"You are skirting dangerously close to creating a meme here." -- Jonah Lehrer
Well, we know the ones it turns out badly for. Who knows how many out there got away with it.
Nonsurvivorship bias.
True enough. And sometimes people think they got away with it and then it catches up to them unexpectedly. Like schraeds comment (which you can see if you show dead) its even worse when they might otherwise be contributing useful stuff.