What is phishing?
– Phishing is the practice of sending fraudulent emails that falsely warns consumers that there’s a problem with an order or credit card, in an attempt to dupe them into providing personal and credit card information. Phishing expeditions spoof, or fake, the identity of a legitimate merchant, and both the email and the web site it refers to mimics the exact look and feel of the real merchant’s site.
Recently there have been attempts by criminals to trick people into revealing their personal information, such as passwords, by creating fake websites that look very much like the sites of legitimate financial institutions. They send out emails randomly with links to these fake websites. This phenomenon has been called Phishing, (pro-nounced fishing).
Phishing is an Internet fraud technique that is used by criminals to trick you into giving them personal information. Phishing occurs when a criminal sends you an e-mail message with a link to what may appear to be our web site – but it is actually a fake. On this fake web site, you will be asked to enter personal information, such as your social security number, account number or credit card number. Phishing is a fraudulent act aimed at stealing your identity and private account information. Phishers set up a phony web site that looks like the site of a trusted company to trick you into disclosing your user ID and password.
Phishing (pronounced “fishing”) is a form of criminal activity that employs social engineering techniques to acquire sensitive information such as passwords and credit card details. By masquerading as a trustworthy person or business in an apparently official electronic communication like e-mail, criminals use sophisticated lures to “fish” for users’ financial information and passwords.
