Member Education Center
phishing (FISH.ing) pp. Creating a replica of an existing Web
page to fool a user into submitting personal, financial, or password
data. —adj.
—phisher n.
Example Citations:
Phishing is the term coined by hackers who imitate legitimate
companies in e-mails to entice people to share passwords or credit-card
numbers. Recent victims include Charlotte's Bank of America, Best Buy
and eBay, where people were directed to Web pages that looked nearly
identical to the companies' sites.
The term had its coming
out this week when the FBI called phishing the "hottest, and most
troubling, new scam on the Internet." The name appears to have no
connection to the band Phish, an FBI spokesman said.
—Andrew Shain, "Phishing to steal your information," Charlotte Observer,
July 25, 2003
Tips on how to avoid the Internet scam known as phishing.
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If you receive an
unexpected e-mail saying your account will be shut down unless you
confirm your billing information, do not reply or click any links in
the e-mail body.
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Before submitting
financial information through a Web site, look for the "lock" icon
on the browser's status bar. It means your information is secure
during transmission.
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If you are uncertain
about the information, contact the company through an address or
telephone number you know to be genuine.
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If you unknowingly
supplied personal or financial information, contact your bank and
credit card company immediately.
Suspicious e-mail can be
forwarded to uce@ftc.gov, and
complaints should be filed with the state attorney general's office or
through the FTC at www.ftc.gov.
—Kevin Pang, "'Phishers' widen their catch of Web identity victims,"
Chicago Tribune, July 29, 2003 |
