Hampshire College

Phishing is a type of internet scam that uses e-mail in an attempt to trick recipients into giving up their personal financial information. Webopedia gives the following definition.

phishing (fish´ing) (n.) The act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. The e-mail directs the user to visit a Web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers, that the legitimate organization already has. The Web site, however, is bogus and set up only to steal the user’s information.

To protect yourself against this type of exploit, do NOT click on any web links within the e-mail. If you are uncertain whether the e-mail comes from the business entity it claims to, then visit their web site by typing the URL in yourself, or calling the business. For more details on how to spot a Phishing scam, visit Webopedia.