n. 25B6; noun
they obtained money by deception : DECEIT, deceitfulness, duplicity, double-dealing, fraud, cheating, trickery, chicanery, deviousness, slyness, wiliness, guile, bluff, lying, pretence, treachery; informal crookedness, monkey business, jiggery-pokery; N. Amer. informal monkeyshines.
it was all a deception : TRICK, deceit, sham, fraud, pretence, hoax, fake, blind, artifice; stratagem, device, ruse, scheme, dodge, machination, subterfuge; cheat, swindle; informal con, set-up, scam, flimflam; N. Amer. informal bunco.