Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) blackmail.

2023

(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 146: Blackmail’s our only protection [...] It’s a heavy-duty skank deal. And skank’s the only thing that will stop Bobby [Kennedy] .

2. (W.I./UK black teen) a confidence trick, a fraudulent scheme.

1992		in R. Graef Living Dangerously 143: If he did try a skank (a rip-off) [...] he knew what would happen.
1997		‘Q’ Deadmeat 104: You’re always juggling, pulling a skank.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 250: Jimmy put that skank together? Put the Yahoos up to that?
2002		L. Kwesi Johnson ‘Double Scank’ in Mi Revalueshanary Fren 4: Him site a likkle sistah / him move fi pull a scank / but she soon sus him out.
2004		J. Ellroy ‘Hot-Prowl Rape-O’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 257: Daniel Arthur Getchell – the skank-scamming, scandal-skimming, scopophile king.