phishing
English
Etymology
Respelling of fishing (“trying to find”). In Usenet newsgroups, cracker and pirate groups used variant spellings of phish and warez (i.e. wares) to evade scans and filters by mainstream servers policing the ARPAnet/Internet.
Pronunciation
- Homophones: fishing
- Rhymes: -ɪʃɪŋ
Noun
phishing (uncountable)
- (computing) 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.
- The act of circumventing security with an alias.
Synonyms
Translations
the act of sending email that falsely claims to be from a legitimate organization
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Related terms
Verb
phishing
- Present participle of phish.