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to deceive or get the better of (someone) by trickery, flattery, or the like; humbug; hoodwink (often followed by into):
They bamboozled us into joining the club.
Synonyms: gyp, dupe, trick, cheat, swindle, defraud, flimflam, hoax, gull, rook; delude, mislead, fool.
to perplex; mystify; confound.
Synonyms: befog, bewilder, puzzle, baffle, dumbfound.
to practice trickery, deception, cozenage, or the like:
He bamboozled his way to the top.
Contemporary Examples

Conservatives were “bamboozled,” says former Texas GOP Chairman Tom Pauken.
Karl Rove’s Flameout Matt Latimer October 21, 2010

Speaking of bamboozled, every Halloween you hear a horror story of a celebrity in blackface costume.
Spike Lee on Blackface, ‘Oldboy,’ ’12 Years a Slave,’ and The Brooklyn Nets Jimmy So October 30, 2013

Roseanne Barr thinks America has been “bamboozled and hoodwinked.”
Roseanne Barr: Why You Should Vote for Me for President Abigail Pesta August 7, 2012

Though certainly romantic on the subject, Booker has been neither corralled nor bamboozled.
Cory Booker Is Nobody’s Dupe Ben Karp June 23, 2013

Historical Examples

Neither she nor any other shall be befooled and bamboozled under my roof.
Imaginary Conversations and Poems Walter Savage Landor

She’s bamboozled that sap-headed county judge, Boompointer, into givin’ it to her.
Found At Blazing Star Bret Harte

As if the President could be bamboozled by such a shallow artifice.
Thirty Years’ View (Vol. II of 2) Thomas Hart Benton

And as a matter of fact I was left just as bamboozled as you were.
Simon J. Storer Clouston

“I’m ashamed of the way I bamboozled you fine fellows, and that’s the honest truth,” he started to say.
At Whispering Pine Lodge Lawrence J. Leslie

You may have bamboozled the President, after all he’s only a civilian, but you’re not about to fool me!
I Was a Teen-Age Secret Weapon Richard Sabia

verb (transitive) (informal)
to cheat; mislead
to confuse
v.

1703, originally a slang or cant word, perhaps Scottish from bombaze “perplex,” related to bombast, or French embabouiner “to make a fool (literally ‘baboon’) of.” Related: Bamboozled; bamboozling. As a noun from 1703.

modifier

Confused; mystified (1800s+)

verb

To hoax; trick; swindle; flimflam: My worthy opponent thrives by bamboozling the public

[Underworld 1700s+; origin unknown and much disputed; some claim a Romany source]