What is Phishing?
Phishing (also known as phising) is the practice whereby a fraudster who is pretending to be from a legitimate organisation, sends misleading emails requesting personal and financial details from unsuspecting people.
If the information is supplied to the fraudster, identity theft (where the fraudster pretends to be the account holder) usually occurs and money may be transferred away into the fraudsters account or used directly to make online purchases.
Phishing is predominately associated with spam, whereby thousands of messages are sent out at once in the hope that a few people will be caught and supply their financial and personal details to the fraudster.
Computer viruses and spyware can also aid in spreading personal details throughout the Internet.
Phishing was first identified in hacker circles in 1996 and became a major issue in auction sites such as eBay (www.ebay.com) and payment gateways such as PayPal (www.paypal.com).
In recent years, phishing has become more sophisticated and many financial institutions (including banks) clients are falling victim to the fraudulent practice.