Imposture

имя существительное жульничество, обман, надувательство

Большой англо-русский словарь

Imposture

noun Etymology: Late Latin impostura, from Latin impositus, impostus, past participle of imponere 1. the act or practice of deceiving by means of an assumed character or name 2. an instance of imposture Synonyms: imposture, fraud, sham, fake, humbug, counterfeit mean a thing made to seem other than it is. imposture applies to any situation in which a spurious object or performance is passed off as genuine Example: their claim of environmental concern is an imposture. fraud usually implies a deliberate perversion of the truth Example: the diary was exposed as a fraud. sham applies to fraudulent imitation of a real thing or action Example: condemned the election as a sham. fake implies an imitation of or substitution for the genuine but does not necessarily imply dishonesty Example: these jewels are fakes; the real ones are in the vault. humbug suggests elaborate pretense usually so flagrant as to be transparent Example: creating publicity by foisting humbugs on a gullible public. counterfeit applies especially to the close imitation of something valuable Example: 20-dollar bills that were counterfeits.

Энциклопедический словарь Мерриама-Вебстера