Yes, you see them do it because it engages people like you, giving them more ad impressions. The engaged people then try to spread it, giving them even more ad impressions. They're being taken advantage of and they fail to realize it.

We think of the heyday of yellow journalism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_journalism "...that use eye-catching headlines and sensationalized exaggerations for increased sales.") as something from the bygone era of Hearst but, nope, it's alive and well and kicking into overdrive today.