This is getting pedantic but: it's not tricking people into anything. People don't have a choice. In a real dark pattern, you're trying to convince users to do

This is getting pedantic but: it's not tricking people into anything. People don't have a choice. In a real dark pattern, you're trying to convince users to do something -- here, the users were going to (get their numbers verified, do the web search, whatever) anyway, it's just the illusion of doing more work. It's shitty but it's not evil.