Crossword Genius

River current beginning to deceive American (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

indus

'river' is the definition.
(Indus is an example)

'current beginning to deceive american' is the wordplay.
'current' becomes 'in' (I've seen this in other clues**).
'beginning to' suggests taking the first letters.
'american' becomes 'us'.
The initial letter of 'deceive' is 'd'.
'in'+'d'+'us'='INDUS'

(Other definitions for indus that I've seen before include "River of India and Pakistan" , "River of India/Pakistan" , "Pakistani river" , "running water" , "Main river of Pakistan" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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