A result that indicates that a given condition is present when it is not. An example of a false positive would be if a particular test designed to detect cancer returns a positive result but the person does not have 'cancer.

A result that has been mistakenly identified as a problem when, in reality, the situation is normal.

In fraud detection, a "false positive" occurs when something innocent is wrongly deemed suspicious. Credit card holders encounter false positives most often occurs when a cardholder accidentally trips the card issuer's fraud detection system. Card issuers have developed sophisticated, automated fraud detection systems that work by de [..]

A test result that incorrectly reports a person has a disease when she/he does not have the disease.

This is the amount of good or true accounts flagged by the fraud prevention system as fraudulent.

A test result that is not correct. This may be a result of performing the test incorrectly or using a test that is not accurate. A false positive test in HIV would be a test that is positive in a pers [..]

A test result that incorrectly indicates that the condition tested for is present.

(fâls poz´&-tiv) (n.) The condition in which spam-filtering software will incorrectly identify a legitimate, solicited or expected e-mail as a spam transmission. As spammers use more and more soph [..]

is considered the binary opposite to a false negative where in diagnostics for example, an individual may not actually have a condition but a piece of equipment clearly indicates they do indeed have t [..]

A legitimate email message that is mistakenly rejected or filtered by a spam filter.

A hit that is erroneously recognized as good (positive).

Term used to describe a test result that wrongly or inaccurately shows the presence of a disease or other conditions when none exist.

an error when one concludes that there is a real difference between two means when, in fact, there is not; also called a Type I error

Definition: When a test incorrectly gives a positive result. Compare to false negative.

False positive is a positive result when a person is actually in fact negative for whatever is being analysed. This may happen when a person has an underlying condition that may affect the results of [..]

An email that is marked as spam, even though it is legitimate.FQDN

  When an antivirus scan is run and the scanner reports that some programs are infected with malware which may not be the actual case and the files are safe. This kind of false alert is called 'F [..]

A positive test result that incorrectly indicates that the condition being tested for is present when, in fact, the condition is actually not present. For example, a false positive HIV test indicates a person has HIV when, in fact, the person is not infected with HIV. See Related Term(s): False Negative

A false positive is the dismissal or rejection of a null hypothesis (a general or default position or assumption) when the hypothesis is true. In computing, a very common example of a false positive o [..]

A test result that wrongly indicates that a particular disease or condition is present.

 A positive result in a test when that person does not have the condition

A test result that wrongly shows an effect to be present.

An error in which the decision-maker predicts something will occur, but it does not occur. Also known as a Type 2 error.

A legitimate message mistakenly rejected or filtered as spam, either by an ISP or a recipient’s anti-spam program. The more stringent an anti-spam program, the higher the false-positive rate. FAQ

In screening, this means a positive test for a disease when the person doesn’t have the disease. This means that the person has to have further tests that they don’t need. The tests may cause side effects. A potential screening test that produces too many false positive results cannot be widely used.