what is difference between defraud and scam
- defraude (obsolete)
From Middle English defrauden, from Old French defrauder, from de- + frauder.
- (UK) IPA(key): /dɪ.ˈfɹɔːd/
- Rhymes: -ɔːd
defraud (third-person singular simple present defrauds, present participle defrauding, simple past and past participle defrauded)
- (transitive) To obtain money or property from (a person) by fraud; to swindle.
- I had never defrauded a man of a farthing, nor called him knave behind his back. But now the last rag that covered my nakedness had been torn from me. I was branded a blackleg, card-sharper, and murderer.
- (archaic) To deprive.
- 1872, William Goodell, “On Conjugal Onanism and Kindred Sins”, Nashville Journal of Medicine and Surgery, vol. 9, page 63.
US carnival slang. Possibly from scamp (“swindler, cheater”). Also possibly from skam.
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.
- enPR: skăm, IPA(key): /skæm/
- Rhymes: -æm
scam (plural scams)
- A fraudulent deal.
- That marketing scheme looks like a scam to me.
- Something that is promoted using scams.
- That car was a scam.
- con game, confidence trick, swindle
- See also Thesaurus:deception
- take for a ride
scam (third-person singular simple present scams, present participle scamming, simple past and past participle scammed)
- (transitive) To defraud or embezzle.
- They tried to scam her out of her savings.
- ACMs, ACSM, CAMs, CASM, CSMA, M. A. Sc., M.A.Sc., MACs, MASc, MCAs, Macs, SMAC, cams, macs, masc, masc.
Attested only in the plural form scaim. From Proto-Celtic *skamos. Cognate with Welsh ysgafn (“light”) and Welsh ysgyfaint (“(pair of) lungs”), Breton skañv, Cornish skav.
- Matasović, R. (2009). Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic, p.339. Brill: Boston.