Scammed

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To unlawfully mislead an individual in order to gain financial advantage or possessions
2. To take advantage of someone's trust to illegally obtain resources or personal information for profit
3. Having been tricked through dishonest means to lose money or valuables

Etymology: The verb "scammed" is simply the past tense of "scam", so its story is really the story of the noun and verb behind it. The most striking part is that "scam" first surfaced in US carnival slang, where its origin is uncertain. One suggestion is that it comes from "scamp", a word for a swindler or cheat. Another proposal links it to the Irish "cam", meaning crooked, while a more speculative idea connects it to Danish "skam", which would make it a distant cousin of "shame" and "sham". Its first recorded appearance in print was around 1963, in the magazine Time. For roughly two decades it stayed a fairly specialised term, until the early 1980s, when Operation ABSCAM, an FBI sting aimed at public officials, became public. The news coverage gave the word wide currency, and it spread quickly through American drug culture before becoming common everywhere.

Synonyms: defrauded, cheated, conned, bilked, duped

Antonyms: trusted, believed, supported, aided, helped