fraud

/ˈfrȯd/

Middle English fraude, from Anglo-French, from Latin fraud-, fraus

noun

  1. deceit, trickery; specifically : intentional perversion of truth in order to induce another to part with something of value or to surrender a legal right

  2. an act of deceiving or misrepresenting : trick

  3. a person who is not what he or she pretends to be : impostor; also : one who defrauds : cheat

automobile insurance frauds

deception fraud double-dealing subterfuge trickery mean the acts or practices of one who deliberately deceives. deception may or may not imply blameworthiness, since it may suggest cheating or merely tactical resource. fraud always implies guilt and often criminality in act or practice.

adjective

  1. opposing or intended to discourage or prevent fraud

the anti-fraud provisions of the Federal securities laws

noun

  1. fraud committed by clicking through an advertisement on a website multiple times to spuriously increase the cost to the advertiser

Click fraud is where organisations or individuals take advantage of search engines' pay-per-click models—in which a company pays a fee if a consumer clicks through from the search engine to its website after entering search criteria—by continually clicking on an organisation's link.