Meaning
Fraud refers to the act of deliberately deceiving someone for personal or financial gain. It involves dishonesty, trickery, or false representation intended to harm another person or entity.
Grammar and Usage
- Part of speech: Noun
- Countable/Uncountable: Can be both — “a fraud” (countable, person) or “fraud” (uncountable, act)
Typical patterns:
- commit fraud — to carry out a fraudulent act
- be guilty of fraud — to have committed fraud
- a case of fraud — an incident involving fraudulent behavior
- insurance/tax/credit card fraud — types of fraud
Common Phrases
- commit fraud — to cheat or deceive illegally
- financial fraud — deception involving money or investments
- identity fraud — using another person’s identity for illegal purposes
- insurance fraud — making false claims to get money from insurance
- fraud prevention — measures to stop fraud
Collocations
- commit / detect / prevent / investigate fraud
- fraud case / fraud charge / fraudster / fraud victim
- massive / corporate / online / tax fraud
Examples
- The company’s director was arrested for committing financial fraud.
- Identity fraud has become a serious issue with the rise of online transactions.
- He was found guilty of tax fraud and sentenced to prison.
- The bank has strict measures in place to prevent credit card fraud.
- She lost all her savings because of an investment fraud scheme.
- The police launched an investigation into a large-scale insurance fraud.
- Online fraudsters often target elderly people.
- The government introduced new regulations to combat fraud in the public sector.
- He pretended to be a lawyer, but it turned out to be a fraud.
- Fraud detection systems use AI to identify suspicious activities.
Synonyms or Related
- deception
- scam
- trickery
- dishonesty
- deceit
- swindle
Antonym
- honesty
- integrity
- truthfulness