- Be careful not to get scammed by phishers during the holiday season.
phisher
noun; derivation
A person who sends fake emails which appear authentic to fool people in giving out personal or financial information The word has become popular because of scam emails in the on-line community. I’m not sure where the ph- stem comes from, possibly Greek. “Fishy” is usually used in connotation of some fraudulent or illegal activity. So a phisher would be the person committing the crime. I think the media has made it more popular with identity theft awareness. The etymology of fish is from the Oxford English Dictionary.
Etymology : derived from fish-common Teutonic; Old English fisc
Source : Email from friend
Last modified: 10 June 2008