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FRAUD
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Something intended to deceive; deliberate trickery intended to gain an advantage
Synonyms:
dupery; fraud; fraudulence; hoax; humbug; put-on
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("fraud" is a kind of...):
chicane; chicanery; guile; shenanigan; trickery; wile (the use of tricks to deceive someone (usually to extract money from them))
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fraud"):
goldbrick (anything that is supposed to be valuable but turns out to be worthless)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Intentional deception resulting in injury to another person
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("fraud" is a kind of...):
crime; criminal offence; criminal offense; law-breaking ((criminal law) an act punishable by law; usually considered an evil act)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fraud"):
barratry ((maritime law) a fraudulent breach of duty by the master of a ship that injures the owner of the ship or its cargo; includes every breach of trust such as stealing or sinking or deserting the ship or embezzling the cargo)
identity theft (the co-option of another person's personal information (e.g., name, Social Security number, credit card number, passport) without that person's knowledge and the fraudulent use of such knowledge)
mail fraud (use of the mails to defraud someone)
election fraud (misrepresentation or alteration of the true results of an election)
constructive fraud; legal fraud (comprises all acts or omissions or concealments involving breach of equitable or legal duty or trust or confidence)
collateral fraud; extrinsic fraud (fraud that prevents a party from knowing their rights or from having a fair opportunity of presenting them at trial)
fraud in fact; positive fraud (actual deceit; concealing something or making a false representation with an evil intent to cause injury to another)
fraud in the factum (fraud that arises from a disparity between the instrument intended to be executed and the instrument actually executed; e.g., leading someone to sign the wrong contract)
fraud in the inducement (fraud which intentionally causes a person to execute an instrument or make an agreement or render a judgment; e.g., misleading someone about the true facts)
intrinsic fraud (fraud (as by use of forged documents or false claims or perjury) that misleads a court or jury and induces a finding for the one perpetrating the fraud)
cheat; rig; swindle (the act of swindling by some fraudulent scheme)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A person who makes deceitful pretenses
Synonyms:
fake; faker; fraud; imposter; impostor; pretender; pseud; pseudo; role player; sham; shammer
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("fraud" is a kind of...):
beguiler; cheat; cheater; deceiver; slicker; trickster (someone who leads you to believe something that is not true)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fraud"):
name dropper (someone who pretends that famous people are his/her friends)
ringer (a contestant entered in a competition under false pretenses)
Context examples:
This happened to me, but I caught the fraud of $3,500 the following day—I was wondering why I had so little money in my account, and my app showed that someone signed my name in a way that didn’t even look like my signature.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
I could not discover whether my aunt, in her last short conversation with me, had fallen on a pious fraud, or had really mistaken the state of my mind.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
What about exposing a fraud—a modern Munchausen—and making him rideeculous?
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
He was a man of good family and of great ability, but of incurably vicious habits, who had by an ingenious system of fraud obtained huge sums of money from the leading London merchants.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
They look upon fraud as a greater crime than theft, and therefore seldom fail to punish it with death; for they allege, that care and vigilance, with a very common understanding, may preserve a man’s goods from thieves, but honesty has no defence against superior cunning; and, since it is necessary that there should be a perpetual intercourse of buying and selling, and dealing upon credit, where fraud is permitted and connived at, or has no law to punish it, the honest dealer is always undone, and the knave gets the advantage.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
“Something has been got from him by fraud, I know,” returned Traddles quietly; “and so do you, Mr. Heep. We will refer that question, if you please, to Mr. Micawber.”
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
I'll show him up for the fraud he is.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Now your honour is to know, that these judges are persons appointed to decide all controversies of property, as well as for the trial of criminals, and picked out from the most dexterous lawyers, who are grown old or lazy; and having been biassed all their lives against truth and equity, lie under such a fatal necessity of favouring fraud, perjury, and oppression, that I have known some of them refuse a large bribe from the side where justice lay, rather than injure the faculty, by doing any thing unbecoming their nature or their office.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
“A fraud on the Bank of England?” I asked.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
From the beginning he has never concealed his belief that Professor Challenger is an absolute fraud, that we are all embarked upon an absurd wild-goose chase and that we are likely to reap nothing but disappointment and danger in South America, and corresponding ridicule in England.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
