1. (n.) Deception deliberately practiced with a view to gaining an unlawful or unfair advantage; artifice by which the right or interest of another is injured; injurious stratagem; deceit; trick.

2. (n.) An intentional perversion of truth for the purpose of obtaining some valuable thing or promise from another.

3. (n.) A trap or snare.

abstraction acting actor affectation affecter annexation appearance appropriation artfulness artifice attitudinizing ballot-box stuffing bamboozlement barracuda bilk bilker blagueur bluff bluffer bluffing boosting bunco cardsharping charlatan cheat cheater cheating chicane chicanery clinquant color coloring con artist con man confidence man conversion conveyance counterfeit cozenage craft craftiness credibility gap deceit deceitfulness deceiver deception defrauder delusion diddle diddling disguise dishonesty disingenuousness dissemblance dissembling dissimulation dodge double-dealing dummy dupery duping duplicity embezzlement facade face fake fakement faker fakery faking false air false front false show falseheartedness falsity feigning feint filching fishy transaction flam flimflam flimflammer forgery forswearing four-flushing fourflusher frame-up fraudulence fraudulency front gerrymandering gilt gloss graft grift guile gyp gyp joint hanky-panky hoax hollow man hoodwinking humbug humbuggery illicit business imitation impersonator imposition impostor imposture insincerity intrigue inveigler junk knave liberation lifting malingerer man of straw mannerist masquerade meretriciousness mock monkey business mountebank ostentation outward show paper tiger paste performer perjury phony pilferage pilfering pinchbeck pinching playacting playactor poaching pose poser poseur posing posture pretender pretense pretension pretext put-on put-up job quack quacksalver quackster racket representation ringer rip-off rogue ruse saltimbanco scam scoundrel scrounging seeming sell semblance sham shammer shark sharp practice sharper shoddy shoplifting show simulacrum simulation snatching sneak thievery snitching speciousness stealage stealing stratagem straw man subterfuge swindle swindler swindling swiping theft thievery thieving tinsel treachery trick trickery trickster uncandidness uncandor unfrankness unsincereness untruthfulness varnish whited sepulcher wile window dressing