scam
/skam
/noun informal
A dishonest scheme; a fraud: an insurance scam...
- Why can't they just content themselves with diet scams and insurance fraud?
- This will focus on mitigating the risk of fraud, hacking, identity theft, scams and schemes.
- Then (of course) there are all the scams and frauds being perpetrated through the Net.
Synonyms
fraud, swindle, fraudulent scheme, racket, trick, diddle
informal con, con trick, flimflam, gyp, kite
British informal ramp, twist
North American informal hustle, grift, shakedown, bunco, boondoggle
Australian informal rort
verb (scams, scamming, scammed) [with object]
Swindle: a guy that scams old pensioners out of their savings...
- It seems the scammers are trying to get increasingly clever, and it's an interesting social engineering trick to try to get people to let down their guard by first warning them about a scam - and then scamming them anyway.
- And now investigators have to figure out whose claims are legit and who is scamming the system.
- However these rules will not stop you from being scammed as a scam is more psychological than anything else.
Derivatives
scammer
- May we humbly request your immediate and urgent attention to tell you the story of a Nigerian e-mail scammer convicted of wire fraud in Houston, Texas?
- Considering the extent to which the scammers go for these scams, all this is likely to do is drive them further underground.
- If state laws say one thing to stop a scam, can the scammers simply move online?
Origin
1960s: of unknown origin.