What Is Phishing?

[Uentil 0]

One time i heard someone say "Watch out for people phishing myspace"... Uhhhh, whats excactly would that mean? Like, fishing for people or what?

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[Sprnknwn 0]

The "What is...?" subforum is to explain something to each others, not to ask. People usually get confused about it... maybe we should change the name, but if you read the explanation bellow it says

Did you discover something today or learn something new? Tell it to others, and exchange general knowledge and information.

I don´t have a technical explanation but I know that is when you receive an e-mail for example from a bank and it says that you have to confirm your personal information because of "any stupid excuse". So you click on the link and you´re asked for your information, which you´re giving to a person that obviously is not anybody of your bank. So they´re able to enter in your account and pick up your money. I have received a lot of emails of that kind and I think you can´t be too clever if you get caught with a trick like that.

So I suppose phising is used for every action with the idea of trick other people to get a benefit. The word says it all in fact, like "fishing" for humans...
Edited May 18, 2006 by Sprnknwn (see edit history)

[Arigato 0]

Phishing is when scammers use a reputable name in order to try and trick you into submitting sensitive information to them. Common phishing schemes are websites that look indential to the official one that steal your password when you try and log-in. This is why it is very important to watch the URL and check SSL certificates. It is an important skill to be able to identify phishing sites and emails.

[FirefoxRocks 0]

Phishing: A method of identity theft carried out through the creation of a website that seems to represent a legitimate company. The visitors to the site, thinking they are buying something from a real business, submit their personal information to the site. The criminals then use the personal information for their own purposes, or sell the information to other criminal parties.Phishing (my definition): A person, group or organization creating a website that represents a very popular company or business. Unsuspecting people visit the site and enter personal information, therefore allowing the info to be sent to the certain criminal (group). This info can be used to develop adware, spam your address or resold to other criminal organizations or groups.

[arnz 0]

In computing, phishing is a form of criminal activity using social engineering techniques. It is characterized by attempts to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy person or business in an apparently official electronic communication. Phishing is typically carried out using email or an instant message, though it has more recently exploited fax

My thoughts, Phishing is a person, or group, or organisation masquerading (or claiming themselves) as a known or established company through a unofficial dodgy cloned looking website. Unsuspecting viewers then either enter personal information through there, thus it gets sent to a unauthorized (criminal )group for their own purposes (ie spamming, or used for other malicious purposes).

[iGuest 3]

Phishing is when some one sends you a email trying to get your account info. or when they set up a fake login page. that looks the same as the real one. and what it does is it sends your login info to there email account.

[arnz 0]

Now in most cases, the real websites usually sends a disclaimer through email, their site and their official login page that their login or transactions go through their official URL at (businessname.com.au) for example, and not through any other site claiming to be them. You can tell by the fake login page, and the proper login page by looking at the URL. A fake login page would have a URL which differentiates from the official site.

[pop 0]

One time i heard someone say "Watch out for people phishing myspace"... Uhhhh, whats excactly would that mean? Like, fishing for people or what?

phishing on myspace is like psihing in sea when you have a good bate. you have myspace profile and you have personal message from people, they give you links, and you visit their girl site get virus. it is bad couse it is called malicious and your windows message gets stop sign and shuts down

[velma 6]

Hello,

 

The definitions given above are all true, Phishing involves getting the personal details of a person like their credit card numbers or login details to important websites and then abusing them to their advantage.

 

It can be in the form of websites,emails or downloads.. Below are websites that might help understand better and keep your personal details safe :-

Go Wiki

All About Phishing

Recognize Phishing

Phishy

Hope these help you understand phishing