That really fits - they are playing a confidence game:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confidence_trickA confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual working alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as greed, both dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility, naïveté, and the thought of trying to get something of value for nothing or for something far less valuable.
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The confidence trick is also known as a con game, con, scam, grift, hustle, bunko, swindle, flim flam, gaffle or bamboozle. The intended victim(s) are known as marks. The perpetrator of a confidence trick is often referred to as a confidence man/woman, con man/woman, con artist or grifter. When accomplices are employed, they are known as shills.
In David Mamet's film House of Games, the main con artist gives a slightly different description of the "confidence game." He explains that, in a typical swindle, the con man gives the mark his own confidence, encouraging the mark to in turn trust him. The con artist thus poses as a trustworthy person seeking another trustworthy person.
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Confidence tricks exploit typical human qualities such as greed, dishonesty, vanity, honesty, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility and naïveté. The common factor is that the victim (mark) relies on the good faith of the con artist.
Just as there is no typical profile for swindlers, neither is there one for their victims. Virtually anyone can fall prey to fraudulent crimes. ... Certainly victims of high-yield investment frauds may possess a level of greed which exceeds their caution as well as a willingness to believe what they want to believe. However, not all fraud victims are greedy, risk-taking, self-deceptive individuals looking to make a quick dollar. Nor are all fraud victims naïve, uneducated, or elderly.<2>
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Price-Anderson was supposed to be temporary - once the insurance industry was confident in how safe nuclear plants were, it wouldn't be necessary anymore. But the insurance industry never fell for their con game.
The nuclear industry told Congress they were confident that new reactors could be built for under $1500/kw. They only needed $18B in loan guarantees for the first half-dozen reactors, once investors were confident they could be built that cheaply, more loan guarantees wouldn't be needed. But investors never fell for their con game.
The often-repeated claim that a Chernobyl-scale disaster could never happen at a western-style reactor because RBMK blah blah containment blah blah void coefficient blah blah ... and now of course there's a Chernobyl-scale disaster at a western-style reactor in Japan. The nuclear industry bamboozled many people into thinking it was impossible. Unfortunately many people did fall for that con game.
This really is the M.O. of the nuclear industry, and they do it with everything: cost, safety, waste, proliferation, etc.
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