Phishing
Tricking People to Part with Account Information
Definition
"Phishing consists in the use of spoof email messages, which appear to have been sent from a trusted source, to carry out fraudulent activity."
- http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/security-info/cybercrime/phishing/
Method
Phishing is used by fraudsters in order to trick email users into giving away their personal information. Phishers send out thousands of emails to random people and a very small percentage of these people click on it and enter their details. The people who enter their details are tricked into believing that the site is legit and therefore think that they are entering their details into a secure site.
Analogy
Phishing is so named because; the phisher sends out emails just as a fisherman casts out their hook, some of the recipents open the link and enter their details just as a fish bites the bait and gets the hook stuck, and then the phisher gains their information just as a fisherman reels in the catch.
Precautions
There are several different precautionary methods which you can take to ensure that you do not fall prey to phishers. The simplest of these is just to apply a little common sense into your computer use. As long as you don't respond to these emails then you cannot have your details phished. If you think that an email looks 'dodgy' then do not click on it. Emails from many phishers tend to have spelling or grammar mistakes so this is one way of telling them apart from the real thing. Another precaution which people can take against phishing is to set up a spam filter in their email. This is easy to do and is a good precaution to take because it means that all emails which could be trying to phish details are diverted into the spam folder. This allows you to see which emails look suspicous and therefore not click on them.