fraud vs phony

fraud

noun
  • Any act of deception carried out for the purpose of unfair, undeserved and/or unlawful gain. 

  • The assumption of a false identity to such deceptive end. 

  • A person who performs any such trick. 

  • The crime of stealing or otherwise illegally obtaining money by use of deception tactics. 

phony

noun
  • Anything fraudulent or fake. 

  • A person who professes beliefs or opinions that they do not hold. 

  • A person who assumes an identity or quality other than their own. 

verb
  • To fake. 

adj
  • Fraudulent; fake; having a misleading appearance. 

How often have the words fraud and phony occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )