1630s, "sham story, fabrication," also as a verb, "to deceive by flattery;" see flim-flam.
Entries linking to flam
flim-flam n.
also flimflam, 1530s, a contemptuous echoic construction, perhaps connected to some unrecorded dialectal word from Scandinavian (compare Old Norse flim "a lampoon"). From 1650s as a verb. Related: Flim-flammer.