chicanery
shih-KAY-nuh-reenounMeaning clever, dishonest trickery, especially in business or law
Memory hook CHICK-ANE-ery: a painted chicken. Sly Victor paints a plain hen gold and swears she lays golden eggs; that kind of dishonest selling is chicanery.
The card game was pure chicanery; the dealer had marked every ace.
In context The contract looked fair, but it was full of chicanery: tiny print on the last page let the company raise the price whenever it liked.
Similar trickery, deception, trick, double-dealing
Opposite honesty, fairness, integrity
From French chicanerie, from chicaner (to quibble, to argue over small points).