false pretenses

plural noun

a deliberate misrepresentation of facts, as to obtain title to money or property.
the use of such misrepresentation.

First recorded in 1750–60

Does she agree that the Affordable Care Act was offered to the public under false pretenses?

In the end, it was found that students working under Protess had used false pretenses in trying to elicit witness statements.

He and Tyrelle drove to meet the woman last June under what police describe as “false pretenses.”

We might never know how Mitchell fanned two icons of the game, or if she did it under false pretenses.

Geraldine threatens action for “fraud and defamation” on the grounds that I had obtained “information under false pretenses.”

By such false pretenses and underhand proceedings at Florence, the people of Rome, as well as their heroic friends, were deceived.

He rather thought there should be some way of getting money back from people who obtained it under false pretenses.

Your false pretenses of ‘genuineness’ are therefore insults to the history, the traditions, and the entire record of the South.

She was homesick and longing for love and tenderness, but not for one moment would she receive them under false pretenses.

That appointment was obtained under false pretenses and I can prove it.

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