Noun

(en noun)

A secret agreement for an illegal purpose; conspiracy.

*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=(Gary Younge)

, volume=188, issue=26, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution , passage=The dispatches […] also exposed the blatant discrepancy between the west's professed values and actual foreign policies. Having lectured the Arab world about democracy for years, its collusion in suppressing freedom was undeniable as protesters were met by weaponry and tear gas made in the west, employed by a military trained by westerners.}}

Noun

(en noun)

Any act of deception carried out for the purpose of unfair, undeserved and/or unlawful gain.

* Alexander Pope

If success a lover's toil attends, / Few ask, if fraud or force attained his ends.

* {{quote-book, year=2006, author=

, title=Internal Combustion , chapter=1 citation , passage=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.}}

The assumption of a false identity to such deceptive end.

A person who performs any such trick.

(obsolete) A trap or snare.

* Milton

to draw the proud King Ahab into fraud