swindle
/ˈswɪnd(ə)l
/verb [with object]
1Use deception to deprive (someone) of money or possessions: a businessman swindled investors out of millions of pounds...
- The so-called ‘phishing’ scams have developed as a popular technique for fraudsters to swindle people out of everything from PayPal accounts to ATM codes.
- In 1989 he pleaded guilty to 55 counts of fraud, allegedly swindling elderly victims in Virginia and Tennessee out of around $1.25 million.
- Then we hear about widespread accounting malpractices, even in giant corporations, and start to wonder if this is not a huge conspiracy to swindle us out of our money.
1.1Obtain (money) fraudulently: he was said to have swindled £62.5 million from the state-owned cement industry...
- In 2001, a few newspapers carried stories on local securities firms swindling money from investors but soon all fell silent.
- He allegedly swindled funds meant for building a culvert and a school.
- Police in Shanghai have cracked a gang of four who swindled money using short messaging service on cell phones.
Synonyms
defraud, cheat, trick, fleece, dupe, deceive, rook, exploit, squeeze, milk, bleed;
fool, take advantage of, mislead, delude, hoax, hoodwink, bamboozle, string along;
embezzle
informal do, con, sting, diddle, fiddle, swizzle, swizz, rip off, take for a ride, pull a fast one on, pull the wool over someone's eyes, put one over on, sell a pup to, take to the cleaners, bilk, gull, finagle, gazump
North American informal stiff, euchre, bunco, hornswoggle
archaic cozen, sharp
rare mulct
noun
A fraudulent scheme or action: he is mixed up in a £10 million insurance swindle...
- Online crimes can include multimillion-dollar swindles, online auction scams, and piracy of software and other copyrighted material.
- It is a sales gimmick, a cheat, a swindle, a scam.
- It's a total scam, swindle, and fake, but no one in our consumer agencies has any intention of doing anything about it.
Synonyms
fraud, trick, deception, deceit, trickery, chicanery, exploitation, cheat, imposture, sham, sharp practice, artifice;
ruse, dodge, racket, wile
informal con trick, con, sting, diddle, rip-off, fiddle, flimflam, swizzle, swizz
North American informal bunco
Derivatives
swindler
/ noun ...- What's the appeal to you of property criminals such as hucksters, card cheats, swindlers, bank robbers, and con men?
- Not even the police care too much about what's going on in these streets’ the old man chuckled, ‘this is where all the swindlers and thieves hang out.’
- Unfortunately, swindlers also exploited the tragedy to make money over the Internet.
Synonyms
fraudster, fraud, confidence trickster, confidence man, cheat, trickster, rogue, mountebank, exploiter, pretender, charlatan, sham, impostor, hoaxer, embezzler
informal con man, con artist, shark, sharp, hustler, bilker, flimflam man, phoney, chiseller, crook, quack, bunco artist
Origin
Late 18th century: back-formation from swindler, from German Schwindler 'extravagant maker of schemes, swindler', from schwindeln 'be giddy', also 'tell lies'.