What exactly is phishing, i don't know much about computers, so would like to know what it means?

In the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT Administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting public. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail or instant messaging,and it often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one. Even when using server authentication, it may require tremendous skill to detect that the website is fake. Phishing is an example of social engineering techniques used to fool users,and exploits the poor usability of current web security technologies.Attempts to deal with the growing number of reported phishing incidents include legislation, user training, public awareness, and technical security measures.



Example

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co鈥?/a>What exactly is phishing, i don't know much about computers, so would like to know what it means?
A type of scam where someone pretends to be a real person/company/agency (such as pretending to be someone from a bank), to try to steal your personal information, credit card info, etc.
In fishing, you go to the lake, drop a worm in and hope a fish is stupid enough to bite so you can catch it.

In phishing you create web site or send emails hoping to catch people stupid enough to give you their bank details so you can steal their money.What exactly is phishing, i don't know much about computers, so would like to know what it means?
Sending a generic fake email to millions of random email addresses with the intention of getting a reply to either: a) confirm the address is in use so that adverts can be spammed to it, or b) to extract personal details with the intention to defraud the person.
Phishing is a fraudulent way of getting information from people, through web sites and a clever disguise. Here's the basic mechanism: say you try to log in to Yahoo! Answers, but the password you know is correct fails. Upon closer inspection, the GUI (Graphical User Interface) of the site is a perfect replica, but the URL (the address) is different, even in a small tiny way (in this case, let's say it's answer.yahoo.com). And now whoever created that website now has your username and password for your Yahoo Answers account if not your entire Yahoo account. Most well known browsers (Windows IE, Firefox, Safari, Chrome [a bit, it's still fairly new to the browser game]) have anti-phishing filters, which screen you out of well-known phishing sites. But the example I'm talking about is just one of many. See the link below for more. Ways to prevent it: sound security techniques. Sadly, some anti-virus suites don't have anti-phishing tech yet. Just make sure that whenever you have to input a password that it is in the correct address. Some sites employ seals for enhanced security, I know that Yahoo! does it for their mail and other login services. I hope this helps!What exactly is phishing, i don't know much about computers, so would like to know what it means?
Phising is dangerous. The liar copy the legal site like banks, gov and so on.



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