Definition of "phishing" []

• The act of sending email that falsely claims to be from a legitimate organization. This is usually combined with a threat or request for information: for example, that an account will close, a balance is due, or information is missing from an account. The email will ask the recipient to supply confidential information, such as bank account details, PINs or passwords; these details are then used by the owners of the website to conduct fraud. (noun)
• The act of circumventing security with an alias. (noun)
• Present participle of phish. (verb)

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• "Spawns of phishing threats such as ´spear phishing´ - highly targeted and coordinated attacks at a specific organisation or individual designed to extract critical data - increased more than ten-fold since January of this year alone."
• "The term phishing comes from the analogy that the fraudsters are 'fishing' for information in the sea of internet users"
• "This must be how my mom feels when she marvels at me for knowing how to find things on the internet! and not click on links in phishing emails!"