What exactly is a phishing scam?

I've seen some mentions on other question about phishing scams but don't really know what that means. Is it like the e-mail scam where if you give some deposed african prince your bank account number so they can hide funds and you get to keep a million when all is said and done -- only to have your account wiped out?What exactly is a phishing scam?
It's a group or company trying to get information they can use to rip you off they couldn't normally get. If they ask for your credit card information, social security, sensitive internet accounts with passwords. That's phishing.



However, if it's a job site that asks for your name, address and phone number -- that's NOT a phishing scam. That's information available in most phone books or city halls and not sensitive. There's nothing about your name or address that can be used to rip you off.



I think it's an important distinction to make.
In computing, phishing is an attempt to criminally and fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. eBay, PayPal and online banks are common targets.



Buzibuzz

http://www.greendoc.net/What exactly is a phishing scam?
Pretty much that's it. It's a scam where they send out a lure of some kind to try and get money from you. Wikipedia defines it as:



phishing is an attempt to criminally and fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. eBay, PayPal and online banks are common targets.



So, those paypal e-mails you get where they say your security has been breached and you need to enter your password through the e-mail link -- that's a phishing scam. They would take that information and drain your paypal account.
In computing, phishing is an attempt to criminally and fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.What exactly is a phishing scam?
It's when scammers send you an email, posing as a bank, ebay, etc (anything online). They usually say they are re-doing something and need you to click on a link to verify your email address, passwords, account numbers etc. In reality the link takes you to their fake site which steals your info.
The way I've always seen phishing scams is a fake website made to look like a real popular website, so when you go to login, it will steal your password.

Like if someone made a fake site that looked alot like the login page for Yahoo, and sent out links or something, people might go there, 'log in' and have their passwords stolen. And they wouldn't even know sometimes since the site could be smart and automatically redirect them to the REAL Yahoo login.
Something like that!



Phishing is generally a contact made to you by someone you think it is, but it's not.



i.e. You think you've had an email from your bank, you click the link in the email %26amp; it takes you to a page that looks just like your 'normal' online banking service. (Except it's not!)



It's just a con to get you to fill-in your personal information, which then gets sent onto a fraudulent party %26amp; they use it for whatever purposes they intend to.



You provide the information %26amp; you have been phished!
Phishing is a hackers' activity that steals important information from your computer (like passwords and site account info). Phishing is often hidden in emails or infected websites.
It goes like this... You get an official looking e-mail saying to click on this link. You click, and perhaps the site asks you for your credit card number, your social security number or some other bit of info "for verification purposes" that will allow the phisher to access your personal data, such as your bank accounts, lenders, etc.