scam
n. countablen. a clever but dishonest plan used to trick people out of their money. You might see this in a fake email or a phone call from someone pretending to be from your bank.
n. a fraudulent scheme or deceptive operation designed to obtain money or personal information from a victim. While historically informal, it is now standard in legal and financial contexts to describe cybercrime and consumer fraud.
The email was a scam to steal my password.
The police issued a warning about a new phone scam targeting elderly residents by pretending to be government officials.
As digital transactions become the global norm, the sophistication of the average phishing scam has increased, making it harder for even tech-savvy users to distinguish between legitimate and fraudulent communications.
US American carnival slang of uncertain origin. Possibly from scamp (“swindler, cheater”) or Irish cam (“crooked”). Also possibly from Danish skam; if so, it would be a doublet of shame and sham. First use appears c. 1963 in the periodical Time. The word became common use among the US drug culture when in early 1980, after Operation ABSCAM, an FBI sting operation directed at public officials, became public.
Commonly used with verbs like 'run', 'pull', or 'fall for'.
I was scammed by a fake websiteI fell for a scam on a fake websiteLearners often use the noun form when they mean the verb; 'scam' is the trick itself, while 'to be scammed' is the action.