Phishing
phishing (FISH.ing)
pp. Creating a replica of an existing Web page to fool a user into
submitting personal, financial, or password data. —adj.
—phish v. —phisher n. www.wordspy.com
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.
—Kevin Pang, "'Phishers' widen their catch of Web identity
victims," Chicago Tribune, July 29, 2003
 | 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.
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.
|
If you are uncertain about the information, contact the company
through an address or telephone number you know to be genuine.
|
If you unknowingly supplied personal or financial information, contact
your bank and credit card company immediately.
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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. | | |