Noun

(uncountable, computing, Internet) A collection of unsolicited bulk electronic messages.

* {{quote-magazine, title=No hiding place

, date=2013-05-25, volume=407, issue=8837, page=74, magazine=(The Economist) citation , passage=In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion” into sales was a minuscule 0.01%. That means about $165 billion was spent not on drumming up business, but on annoying people, creating landfill and cluttering spam filters.}}

(uncountable, computing, Internet) Any undesired electronic content automatically generated for commercial purposes.

(countable, rare, computing, Internet) An unsolicited electronic message sent in bulk, usually by email or newsgroups.

(tinned meat product)

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