flimflam

1 a clever often underhanded means to achieve an end giving the new guy at work her cell phone number—“in case of an emergency”—was just a flimflam to pique his romantic interest Synonyms artifice, device, dodge, fetch, trick, gambit, gimmick, jig, juggle, knack, play, ploy, scheme, shenanigan, sleight, stratagem, wileRelated Words bluff, end run, feint; cheating, chicanery, cozenage, craft, crookery, cunning, deception, dupery, duplicity, fakery, jugglery, legerdemain, skulduggery (or skullduggery), subterfuge, swindling, trickery; fraud, gaff, hoax, sham, swindle; blind, front, smoke screen

2 an instance of the use of dishonest methods to acquire something of value just the latest Internet flimflam to get e-mail recipients to reveal bank account numbers and other personal information Synonyms bunco (or bunko), con, fiddle [chiefly British], fraud, gyp, hustle, scam, shell game, sting, swindleRelated Words cross, fix; Ponzi scheme, pyramid scheme; racket, rip-off; thimblerig, three-card monte; device, dodge, gimmick, jig, ploy, scheme, sleight, stratagem, trick, wile; gouging, overcharging, soaking; counterfeit, fake, forgery, hoax, humbug, phony (also phoney), sham

to rob by the use of trickery or threats everyone likes to think that they're too smart to be flimflammed by anyone Synonyms beat, bilk, bleed, cheat, chisel, chouse, con, cozen, defraud, diddle, do, do in, euchre, fiddle, fleece, gaff, gyp, hose [slang], hustle, mulct, nobble [British slang], pluck, ream, rip off, rook, screw, shake down, short, shortchange, skin, skunk, squeeze, stick, stiff, sting, sucker, swindle, thimblerig, victimizeRelated Words extort, wrench, wrest, wring; clip, gouge, nick, overcharge, soak; exploit, milk; deceive, dupe, fool, gull, trick; rope (in); betray, bitch, double-cross; bamboozle, fast-talk