How to Use under false pretenses in a Sentence

under false pretenses

phrase

• The war had been sold under false pretenses.
  — Dana Taylor, USA Today, 21 Nov. 2025
• Yoon-gab invites her to the palace, but under false pretenses.
  — Joan MacDonald, Forbes.com, 23 Apr. 2025
• Trump seems to at least in part have made this move against Canada under false pretenses.
  — The Editors, National Review, 2 Feb. 2025
• El Mayo later said he had been lured onto that flight under false pretenses.
  — Sol Amaya, CNN Money, 20 July 2026
• Both soldiers had obtained leave passes under false pretenses to meet me.
  — ProPublica, 15 Dec. 2022
• But her Afghan family says she was taken under false pretenses.
  — Sarah A. Topol Rozina Ali Chloé Cooper Jones David Marchese Kwame Anthony Appiah Yotam Ottolenghi Niela Orr Meg Bernhard Lisa Sanders, M.d. Victoria Chang John Hodgman, New York Times, 20 Nov. 2022
• Some of those combatants say they were lured to Mexico under false pretenses and forced to fight.
  — Kate Linthicum, Los Angeles Times, 27 Feb. 2026
• This is a war being sold to the American people under false pretenses.
  — Brandon Downs, CBS News, 3 Jan. 2026
• In the other corner, a young artist whose ambition was smothered and has entered his orbit under false pretenses.
  — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 9 Apr. 2026
• He was found guilty of two counts of defrauding a hotel and three counts of obtaining a signature under false pretenses, court records show.
  — Kenny Jacoby, USA TODAY, 12 Dec. 2024
• Scammers may post fake room rental listings and even meet potential tenants to collect deposits and first month’s rent under false pretenses.
  — Kelly Phillips Erb, Forbes.com, 27 Aug. 2025
• Render alleges that he was placed under citizen’s arrest under false pretenses.
  — Winston Cho, The Hollywood Reporter, 4 Feb. 2025
• The notion that this war, this aggression by Russia, was being pursued under false pretenses.
  — ABC News, 25 June 2023
• Meanwhile, Lori, a young Black woman hired under false pretenses as an assistant, stares mutely.
  — Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 9 Apr. 2026
• The author of the letter accused Maria of borrowing money under false pretenses.
  — Smithsonian Magazine, 30 Nov. 2022
• Eiffel and members of the company’s management were charged with raising money under false pretenses and misuse of funds.
  — Elizabeth Stamp, Architectural Digest, 25 Dec. 2024
• Rusesabagina was lured back to Rwanda under false pretenses and jailed on terrorism charges before his release last week.
  — CBS News, 27 Mar. 2023
• Anderson, under false pretenses, allegedly catfished her as a 20-year-old.
  — Hatshepsu Coutain-Julien, Hartford Courant, 14 May 2024
• Federal law forbids entering the country under false pretenses, but giving birth in another country is not a crime.
  — Frank Shyong, Los Angeles Times, 26 Jan. 2024
• Jail on June 4 to serve a 90-day jail sentence after having pled guilty last month to obtaining money under false pretenses, a felony.
  — Jakob Rodgers, The Mercury News, 18 Apr. 2024
• Prosecutors say this is an example of defrauding under false pretenses.
  — Arpan Lobo, Detroit Free Press, 3 Jan. 2024
• Nepal has said scores of its citizens were recruited under false pretenses to join Russia’s war effort and has called on Moscow to stop the practice.
  — Ivana Kottasová, CNN Money, 25 Nov. 2025
• Levant’s guest appearance comes courtesy of a medical furlough that June arranged under false pretenses.
  — Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 24 Apr. 2023
• This is not the first time in recent weeks that authorities have arrested people accused of trying to enter evacuation zones under false pretenses.
  — Keri Blakinger, Los Angeles Times, 20 Jan. 2025
• The fraud occurs when people use false identities to rent an apartment under false pretenses or for criminal purposes, owners and property managers say.
  — Medora Lee, USA TODAY, 8 May 2024
• And your maternal grandmother was a Jew who escaped the Holocaust, changed her name, and fled to America under false pretenses.
  — Lori Gottlieb, The Atlantic, 29 July 2024
• Tiron Alexander, 35, was convicted on June 5 of entering the secure area of an airport under false pretenses and wire fraud.
  — Viola Flowers, NBC news, 12 June 2025
• Malware often asks for control over functions like being set as the default dialer or access to accessibility services under false pretenses.
  — Lars Daniel, Forbes, 5 Nov. 2024
• Some Democrats were left frustrated by the Harris campaign’s strategy and have complained that their donations were given under false pretenses.
  — Ross O'Keefe, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 15 Jan. 2025
• The city also accused Franklin and Craff of obtaining their certificate of occupancy under false pretenses, with the intention of running it as a strip club.
  — Matthew Adams, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 4 Mar. 2026