A fraud is an intentional deception perpetrated to secure an unfair gain. Financial fraud, that is, a deception practiced on another party to cheat them out of money, is the most commonly discussed type of fraud. The term "research fraud" or "scientific fraud" is also used to mean an intentional deception about scientific results, a type of research misconduct. In this case there is no financial transaction, there need not be a financial transaction to obtain a financial benefit which the perpetrator receives, and there need not be an injured party. It is useful to sort out the characteristics of a fraudulent act. For this it is instructive to look at the legal definition. In a civil law suit charging fraud there is a plaintiff who brings the charge against a defendant.
To win the suit the plaintiff must prove five points
* the defendant made a false representation
* the defendant knew that the representation was false or at least recklessly disregarded whether it was true or false.
* there was intent to induce belief in the misrepresentation
* the plaintiff had a reasonable belief in the misrepresentation
* the plaintiff suffered damage as a result.
As is illustrated in the case of "research fraud," the term "fraud" is often used informally to mean a misrepresentation that satisfies only the first three criteria.

This definition is in context to Ethics. See more contextual defintions for Fraud.