scammer

noun

scam·​mer ˈska-mər How to pronounce scammer (audio)
plural scammers
: one who perpetrates a scam : a person who commits or participates in a fraudulent scheme or operation
insurance/credit card scammers
The company will not call you to ask for your Social Security or account number, but nefarious scammers might.Ellen Marks
Now that most people are alert to suspicious e-mails and phony phone calls, text messages are the new frontier for scammers out to con you.Consumer Reports

Examples of scammer in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Their lips and facial expressions move with those made by the face of the scammer. Matt Burgess, WIRED, 18 Apr. 2024 The Sheriff’s Office said the Central Police Foundation method is the sole fundraiser for the deputy and warned of scammers creating fraudulent donation methods. Sarah Nelson, The Indianapolis Star, 18 Apr. 2024 Foreign scammers posing as FasTrak representatives have been sending text messages to victims stating there are unpaid charges on their account. Marin Independent Journal, The Mercury News, 16 Apr. 2024 According to Meta, the feature is designed to not only protect people from seeing unwanted nudity in their DMs but also to protect them from scammers who may send nude images to trick people into sending their own images in return. Todd Spangler, Variety, 11 Apr. 2024 Senate Democrats on Tuesday unveiled a sweeping, roughly $1.3 billion bill that would expand the federal government’s powers to find and prosecute pandemic fraud, as Washington scrambles to recover the federal aid stolen by scammers during the worst economic crisis in a generation. Tony Romm, Washington Post, 9 Apr. 2024 Skimming fraud on the rise Authorities across the nation have prosecuted scammers using skimming devices that have stolen millions from Americans through skimming technology at fuel pumps, registers and ATMs. Michael Loria, USA TODAY, 2 Apr. 2024 Tom is a small-time scammer scraping by in early-1960s New York City when he’s summoned to meet with Herbert Greenleaf (Manchester by the Sea filmmaker Kenneth Lonergan), a shipping magnate whose son Richard has been living in Italy on a trust fund. Judy Berman, TIME, 4 Apr. 2024 And though there’s still the chance CBD can have a place in our medicine cabinets, the authors say that health regulators need to do more to rein in the scammers selling it as a cure-all for everything under the Sun. Ed Cara / Gizmodo, Quartz, 2 Apr. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'scammer.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1972, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of scammer was in 1972

Dictionary Entries Near scammer

Cite this Entry

“Scammer.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scammer. Accessed 27 Apr. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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