scam v.
1. (also scam out) to defraud, to trick.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Vice Trap 31: He scammed me the stuff was yours. | |
| Real Bohemia xvi: scam, to to shuck. | |
| Get Shorty [film script] The three hundred grand a guy named Leo Devoe scammed off an airline. The three hundred grand Chili Palmer now has in his possession. | |
| Rumble Tumble 26: If we can scam out on this motel bill [...] we can start rolling promptly. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Indep. Rev. 26 Jan. 16: Darius Guppy [...] faked a jewel robbery, hoping to scam enough insurance money. | |
| ‘Lessons’ Wire ser. 1 ep. 8 [TV script] You got people using each other, scamming each other. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Thrill City [ebook] All this is assuming he wasn’t just scamming the money off you . | |
| Whiplash River [ebook] ‘I don’t know exactly what all they were into. Scamming NGOs, fraudulent government contracts, moving the shells around’. |
2. (also scam up) to carry out any form of scheme, usu. dubious or illegal.
| Glitz 272: I knew soon as you scammed your way in here, got the free ride. | |
| Real Thing 174: Three years scamming around Los Angeles. | |
| Teenage Wasteland 162: Jackie says a lot of kids scam off their parents. | |
| Powder 79: He reached for the phone, wanting to scam up a new plan immediately. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | (con. 1980s) Skagboys 259: Despite aw his scamming he’s totally brassic. | |
| Killing Pool 78: If she ever gets on that plane at all, it’ll be a staging post for some bigger scheme she’s scammed up. | |
| Silver [ebook] ‘[I]f the police knew I was scamming a visa, they could arrest me’. |
3. (US Und.) to escape.
| Lowspeak 124: Scam – to escape from prison. |
4. (US campus, also scam on) to go in search of and look over the opposite sex for casual sex.
| Campus Sl. Oct. 9: scam – to check out [...] Let’s go to the pit and do some scamming on the guys. | |
| Street Talk 2 2: I can’t believe you’re scamming on that goob! | |
| Sl. and Sociability 51: College students, who are perenially preoccupied with the quest for a partner for romance or sex, cruise, put it in cruise mode, check it out, scam, scope, or troll. | |
| Mean Girls [movie script] You do not come to a party at my house with Gretchen and then scam on some poor, innocent girl [...] three days later. | |
| Carnival 54: JJ only scams black ladies. |
In derivatives
subjected to a confidence trick.
| Indep. Traveller 19 June 12: I met a fellow Englishman who had, minutes before, been ‘scammed’. |
1. a confidence trickster.
| After Hours 22: Degenerate schemer, scammer, and gambler. | |
| Skin Tight 75: Hoods, dopers, scammers, bikers and stick-up artists. | |
| Guardian Guide 29 May–4 June 95: Fast-talking Miami scammer Pestario ‘The Pest’ Vargas. | |
| Indep. 12 July 12: The figures indicated that 1 per cent of all complaints were from ‘scammers’ looking for a free lunch. | |
| ‘Took’ Wire ser. 5 ep. 7 [TV script] Goodnight scammers. [...] Goodnight hustlers. | |
| Corruption Officer [ebk] cap. 2: I used to just come to watch all the hustlers, scammers and real Harlem thugs gamble. | |
| Old Scores [ebook] [S]tockmarket scammers and their penny dreadfuls. | |
| Squeeze Me 72: What a scammer, Uric thought. | |
| Consolation 125: Irish roof-repair scammers were a thing—like Albanian ATM scammers. |
2. (US campus) a flirt.
| Sl. U. | |
| Campus Sl. Oct. 5: scammer – someone constantly in search of dates. |
practising confidence tricks and similar schemes.
| Signs of Crime 200: Scamming Taking part in a long firm fraud. | |
| Guardian Guide 25–31 Jul. 23 He is the Artful Dodger as imagined by Tommy Hilfiger, blessed with a plain, square face just right for scamming. |
In phrases
1. to look at another person’s possession, in the hope of being allowed to borrow it.
| Campus Sl. Fall 7: scam on – eye something with the hopes of borrowing it. |
2. see sense 4 above.