Word of the Day

: August 17, 2007

phishing

noun FISH-ing

What It Means

: a scam by which an e-mail user is duped into revealing personal or confidential information which the scammer can use illicitly

phishing in Context

The widespread use of electronic banking and financial transactions has prompted the FTC to crack down on cyber crimes, such as phishing.

Did You Know?

"Phishing" is one of the many new computer-related terms that have found their way into the general lexicon over the past decade or so. Its "ph" spelling is influenced by an earlier word for an illicit act: "phreaking." Phreaking involves fraudulently using an electronic device to avoid paying for telephone calls, and its name is suspected of being a shortening of "phone freak." A common phishing scam involves sending e-mails that appear to come from banks requesting recipients to verify their accounts by typing personal details, such as credit card information, into a Web site that has been disguised to look like the real thing. Such scams can be thought of as "fishing" for naive recipients.