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Glite Dictionary
mail fraud

mail fraud

9 5.5
Crime of using the mail to trick people into giving money or things
  • noun
  • /meɪl frɔd/
  • Formal
translation icon : fraude postal
  • In 1991, Tucker was convicted of felony mail fraud and making false statements to a bank and was imprisoned for a year.
  • mail fraud charges
  • commit mail fraud
  • mail fraud conviction

And one bright kid figures out, spoiler alert, he figures out mail fraud is a way that you can, you can take care of both fears here.

Examples

  • At his arraignment, Lopez pleaded not guilty to all 15 charges, which include embezzlement, mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and tax evasion.

    Blog text (22)

  • That is, it is considered less of a crime than, say, mail fraud.

    Blog text (15)

  • I believe that's mail fraud.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • He is guilty of, at the very least, mail fraud.

    Blog text (1)

  • The firm pleaded guilty to 12 counts of felony mail fraud and paid $25,000 in fines and $125,000 in restitution.

    Academic text (1994)

  • Hillary Clinton's partner and mentor at the Rose law firm, Webster Hubbell, pleaded guilty to federal mail fraud and tax evasion charges, including defrauding former clients and former partners out of more than $480,000.

    Blog text (29)

  • The judge sentenced him to five years in prison for committing mail fraud by using false information in postal applications.

  • During the investigation, they uncovered evidence of mail fraud involving stolen identities to collect payments.

  • She was charged with mail fraud for sending fake invoices through the postal service to deceive customers.

Synonyms

fraud
vsmail fraud
577 4.0

Deceiving someone to get money or an unfair advantage

is the same crime but done through sending letters or packages

Surface Forms

mail fraud singular
mail frauds plural

Morphology

mail + fraud

The meaning 'crime of deceiving someone using postal mail' is directly and compositionally derivable from 'mail' (the postal system) + 'fraud' (a deceptive act); the first word specifies the medium of the fraud. This noun-modifier pattern is common and cross-linguistically parallel, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would very likely infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Mail fraud comes from a simple image: someone sends a fake letter or invoice through the mail to trick people and commit fraud. That's why it means 'the crime of using the postal mail to trick people and take their money'.