scam

English

Etymology

US carnival slang. Possibly from scamp (“swindler, cheater”)

The word "scam" became common use among the US "drug culture" in early 1980 after Operation ABSCAM, an FBI sting operation directed at public officials, became public.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /skæm/, X-SAMPA: /"sk{m/
• Rhymes: -æm

Noun

Wikipedia scam (plural scams)

1. Fraudulent deal.

   That marketing scheme looks like a scam to me.

Synonyms

• con game
• confidence trick
• See also Wikisaurus:deception

Translations

fraudulent deal

• Arabic: احتيال (ar) (iḥtiyāl) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 詭計 (cmn), 诡计 (cmn) (guǐjì), 騙局 (cmn), 骗局 (cmn) (piànjú)

• Czech: podvod (cs) m
• Danish: bondefanger (da)
• Dutch: oplichting (nl) f, deceptie (nl), bedrog (nl), misleiding (nl)
• Finnish: huuhaa (fi)
• French: entourloupe (fr) f, arnaque (fr) f
• Galician: scam (gl) m
• German: Vorschussbetrug (de) m, Trickdiebstahl (de) m, Trickbetrug (de) m
• Hebrew: תרגיל עוקץ (he)

• Ido: eskroko
• Indonesian: scam (id)
• Italian: scam (it) m, fregatura (it) f, truffa (it) f
• Japanese: 詐欺 (ja) (さぎ, sagi)
• Norwegian: bondefangeri (no)
• Polish: oszustwo (pl) n, przekręt (pl) m, szwindel (pl) m
• Portuguese: pilantragem (pt), golpe (pt) m
• Russian: афера (ru) (aféra) f, жульничество (ru) (žúlʹničestvo) n, мошенничество (ru) (mošéničestvo) n; partly: обман (ru) (obmán) m, надувательство (ru) (naduvátelʹstvo) n
• Spanish: estafa (es) f
• Swedish: lurendrejeri (sv)
• Turkish: dolandırma (tr)

Verb

scam (third-person singular simple present scams, present participle scamming, simple past and past participle scammed)

1. To defraud or embezzle.

   They tried to scam her out of her savings.

Synonyms

• con (verb):

Translations

to defraud or embezzle

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 欺詐 (cmn), 欺诈 (cmn) (qīzhà), 騙局 (cmn), 骗局 (cmn) (piànjú), 詐騙 (cmn), 诈骗 (cmn) (zhàpiàn)

• Dutch: oplichten (nl)
• Finnish: vedättää (fi)
• French: entourlouper (fr), arnaquer (fr)
• German: betrügen (de)

• Italian: truffare (it)
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Portuguese: aplicar um golpe (pt)
• Russian: обманывать (ru) (obmányvat’)
• Spanish: estafar (es)
• Swedish: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: please add this translation if you can

Anagrams

• cams
• CASM
• CSMA
• macs, Macs
• masc
• mcas