Saw this tonight, the dealer recognized and stopped the action immediately before damage was done.
10-150 game 4 in to the flop seat 8 bets $50 in to about 220 in the pot, seat 9 calls then...
Seat 3 who folded pre-flop reaches out and clearly cuts out $100 in red chips in the play area as if he is raising, ( the old " if i had a hand id raise like this" type of move) the dealer calls "time" immediately and indicates there is NO raise to the remaining players in the hand then turns to the guy and clearly states that he is not allowed "act" in a hand is not involved in.
raiser says "why not i don't have any cards, it doesn't matter""
Dealer looks at him in disbelief and states "because if someone acts behind you based on your move, guess what happens to those chips", and points at the $100 still sitting in the player area ..."they stay in the pot" ( the dealer told me later that it COULD happen, but the floor would have made a decision based on the situation and he stated it as fact to the guy just to emphasize how wrong it was")
"What? No way !"
Rest of the players..."oh yes they would"
"wow, i did not know that , i wont be doing that again"
At least he accepted what he did was wrong.
Has anyone actually seen someone who has made this move be held to it?
Nope, never seen anyone take action on it, and have it stand. But I do see it a lot, and it is a lot easier to fix if someone sees it as a mistake in a limit game, than in the spread limit where the amount would be much more important than just an additional bet or raise.