I use dirt-cheap VPS servers to tunnel web traffic over SSH socks proxies. Why? For fun. Because I can. To thwart ISP packet inspection and Google profiling my IP. To screw up IP-based ad targeting. Whatever.
I often sign up for a new VPS service while relaying from another one. I will often make it through the entire sign-up process, going through the PayPal info and everything, only to be told something like, "Your new account has been suspended due to suspicion of fraud." This only happens when I'm using a proxy. So they must be doing geo-IP lookups and flagging IP space that is a certain variance from your billing address.
I don't know how many VPS providers have lost my business due to this practice.