fraud
    n 1: intentional deception resulting in injury to another person
    2: a person who makes deceitful pretenses [syn: imposter,
       impostor, pretender, fake, faker, fraud, sham,
       shammer, pseudo, pseud, role player]
    3: something intended to deceive; deliberate trickery intended
       to gain an advantage [syn: fraud, fraudulence, dupery,
       hoax, humbug, put-on]

Fraud \Fraud\ (fr[add]d), n. [F. fraude, L. fraus, fraudis;
   prob. akin to Skr. dh[=u]rv to injure, dhv[.r] to cause to
   fall, and E. dull.]
   1. 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.
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            If success a lover's toil attends,
            Few ask, if fraud or force attained his ends.
                                                  --Pope.
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   2. (Law) An intentional perversion of truth for the purpose
      of obtaining some valuable thing or promise from another.
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   3. A trap or snare. [Obs.]
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            To draw the proud King Ahab into fraud. --Milton.
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   Constructive fraud (Law), an act, statement, or omission
      which operates as a fraud, although perhaps not intended
      to be such. --Mozley & W.

   Pious fraud (Ch. Hist.), a fraud contrived and executed to
      benefit the church or accomplish some good end, upon the
      theory that the end justified the means.

   Statute of frauds (Law), an English statute (1676), the
      principle of which is incorporated in the legislation of
      all the States of this country, by which writing with
      specific solemnities (varying in the several statutes) is
      required to give efficacy to certain dispositions of
      property. --Wharton.

   Syn: Deception; deceit; guile; craft; wile; sham; strife;
        circumvention; stratagem; trick; imposition; cheat. See
        Deception.
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FRAUD, contracts, torts. Any trick or artifice employed by one person to 
induce another to fall into an error, or to detain him in it, so that he may 
make an agreement contrary to his interest. The fraud may consist either, 
first, in the misrepresentation, or, secondly, in the concealment of a 
material fact. Fraud, force and vexation, are odious in law. Booth, Real 
Actions, 250. Fraud gives no action, however, without damage; 3 T. R. 56; 
and in matters of contract it is merely a defence; it cannot in any case 
constitute a new contract. 7 Vez. 211; 2 Miles' Rep. 229. It is essentially 
ad hominem. 4 T. R. 337-8. 
     2. Fraud avoids a contract, ab initio, both at law and in equity, 
whether the object be to deceive the public, or third persons, or one party 
endeavor thereby to cheat the other. 1 Fonb. Tr. Equity, 3d ed. 66, note; 
6th ed. 122, and notes; Newl. Cont. 352; 1 Bl. R. 465; Dougl. Rep. 450; 3 
Burr. Rep. 1909; 3 V. & B. Rep. 42; 3 Chit. Com. Law, 155, 806, 698; 1 Sch. 
& Lef. 209; Verpl. Contracts, passim; Domat, Lois Civ. p. 1, 1. 4, t. 6, s. 
8, n. 2. 
     3. The following enumeration of frauds, for which equity will grant 
relief, is given by Lord Hardwicke, 2 Ves. 155. 1. Fraud, dolus malus, may 
be actual, arising from facts and circumstances of imposition, which is the 
plainest case. 2. It may be apparent from the intrinsic nature and subject 
of the bargain itself; such as no man in his senses, and not under delusion, 
would make on the one hand, and such as no honest and fair man would accept 
on the other, which are inequitable and unconscientious bargains. 1 Lev. R. 
111. 3. Fraud, which may be presumed from the circumstances and condition of 
the parties contracting. 4. Fraud, which may be collected and inferred in 
the consideration of a court of equity, from the nature and circumstances of 
the transaction, as being an imposition and deceit on other persons, not 
parties to the fraudulent agreement. 5. Fraud, in what are called catching 
bargains, (q.v.) with heirs, reversioners) or expectants on the life of the 
parents. This last seems to fall, naturally, under one or more of the 
preceding divisions. 
     4. Frauds may be also divided into actual or positive and constructive 
frauds. 
     5. An actual or positive fraud is the intentional and successful 
employment of any cunning, deception, or artifice, used to circumvent, 
cheat, or deceive another. 1 Story, Eq. Jur. Sec. 186; Dig. 4, 3, 1, 2; Id. 
2, 14, 7, 9. 
     6. By constructive fraud is meant such a contract or act, which, though 
not originating in any actual evil design or contrivance to perpetrate a 
positive fraud or injury upon other persons, yet, by its tendency to deceive 
or mislead. them, or to violate private or public confidence, or to impair 
or injure the public interests, is deemed equally reprehensible with 
positive fraud, and, therefore, is prohibited by law, as within the same 
reason and mischief as contracts and acts done malo animo. Constructive 
frauds are such as are either against public policy, in violation of some 
special confidence or trust, or operate substantially as a fraud upon 
private right's, interests, duties, or intentions of third persons; or 
unconscientiously compromit, or injuriously affect, the private interests, 
rights or duties of the parties themselves. 1 Story, Eq. ch. 7, Sec. 258 to 
440. 
     7. The civilians divide frauds into positive, which consists in doing 
one's self, or causing another to do, such things as induce a belief of the 
truth of what does not exist or negative, which consists in doing or 
dissimulating certain things, in order to induce the opposite party. into 
error, or to retain him there. The intention to deceive, which is the 
characteristic of fraud, is here present. Fraud is also divided into that 
which has induced the contract, dolus dans causum contractui, and incidental 
or accidental fraud. The former is that which has been the cause or 
determining motive of the contract, that without which the party defrauded 
would not have contracted, when the artifices practised by one of the 
parties have been such that it is evident, without them, the other would not 
have contracted. Incidental or accidental fraud is that by which a person, 
otherwise determined to contract, is deceived on some accessories or 
incidents of the contract; for example, as to the quality of the object of 
the contract, or its price, so that he has made a bad bargain. Accidental 
fraud does not, according to the civilians, avoid the contract, but simply 
subjects the party to damages. It is otherwise where the fraud has been the 
determining cause of the contract, qui causam dedit contractui; in that 
case. the contract is void. Toull. Dr. Civ. Fr. Liv. 3, t. 3, c. 2, n. Sec. 
5, n. 86, et seq. See also 1 Malleville, Analyse de la, Discussion de Code 
Civil, pp. 15, 16; Bouv. Inst. Index, h.t. Vide Catching bargain; Lesion; 
Voluntary Conveyance. 

FRAUD, TO DEFRAUD, torts. Unlawfully, designedly, and knowingly, to 
appropriate the property of another, without a criminal intent. 
     2. Illustrations. 1. Every appropriation of the right of property of 
another is not fraud. It must be unlawful; that is to say, such an 
appropriation as is not permitted by law. Property loaned may, during the 
time of the loan, be appropriated to the use of the borrower. This is not 
fraud, because it is permitted by law. 2. The appropriation must be not only 
unlawful, but it must be made with a knowledge that the property belongs to 
another, and with a design to deprive him of the same. It is unlawful to 
take the property of another; but if it be done with a design of preserving 
it for the owners, or if it be taken by mistake, it is not done designedly 
or knowingly, and, therefore, does not come within the definition of fraud. 
3. Every species of unlawful appropriation, not made with a criminal intent, 
enters into this definition, when designedly made, with a knowledge that the 
property is another's; therefore, such an appropriation, intended either for 
the use of another, or for the benefit of the offender himself, is 
comprehended by the term. 4. Fraud, however immoral or illegal, is not in 
itself a crime or offence, for want of a criminal intent. It only becomes 
such in the cases provided by law. Liv. System of Penal Law, 789.