1) By accident or carelessness, 2) on purpose, because somebody wants to mislead others (for example, to influence public opinion in a certain direction).
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Don't make graphs misleading!As for the answer: different scales, leaving out points, drawing extra lines with no meaning, confusing labels, ...Most graphs you see online are misleading, few are really good.
They usually contain a "break" in the graph, which would be on the left side of the graph.
label the axises
Graphs can mislead people by the way they are prepared. See related links for good examples of misleading graphs. When you see a graph, you are seeing a summary of the data. Sometimes our data is misleading, so the graph is just presenting misleading data. For example, I show a graph of how much men and women make each year at a company. I see men make more every year, while women just stay about the same. Perhaps the company just has one woman working there. Perhaps in her job, there are no salary increases. I can also not start the y-axis at zero, to exagerrate the differences. A chart should include all the data. Excluding some data can result in a misleading graph. However, in a graph showing changes over period of time, the preparer of the graph has to chose how long a period is relavent. If we are explaining global warming, a plot showing 100 years might be good. But a graph of car accidents per year, perhaps 5 years is more reasonable.
It is used to trick people into believing that something is fine or not fine. Either for own personal gain or advancement in some field for investment. Its a lie, not true, not accurate, misleading.