Can I buy a flight to a place that is cheaper in order to fly to the layover location?

I want to know if I can..."work the system". a flight to Buffalo from Los angeles is only $99, with a layover at Atlanta. I want to go to Atlanta, but it would be $190 to fly there directly. So if I never went to Buffalo and stayed at the Atl location, would that pose a problem. My main concern is going back, if I confirm my tickets at Buffalo and they don't see that I boarded, they'd cancel my seat on the connecting flight back from Atl to LAX. What do you guys think?