fraud

Etymology

From Middle English fraude (recorded since 1345), from Old French fraude, a borrowing from Latin fraus (“deceit, injury, offence”).

noun

1. (law) The crime of stealing or otherwise illegally obtaining money by use of deception tactics.
2. Any act of deception carried out for the purpose of unfair, undeserved and/or unlawful gain.
   But electric vehicles and the batteries that made them run became ensnared in corporate scandals, fraud, and monopolistic corruption that shook the confidence of the nation and inspired automotive upstarts. 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion
3. The assumption of a false identity to such deceptive end.
4. A person who performs any such trick.
5. (obsolete) A trap or snare.

verb

1. (obsolete) To defraud