- You’ve got mail? Then you’ve got trouble. It’s called phishing- and hundreds of scammers are infiltrating your inbox, stealing passwords, credit cards and whatever else you’ve got.
phishing
noun; blending and clipping
Retrieving private information by a scammer to personally use for benefit. Jargon used by the computer industry to describe an action that is similar to fishing, through sending emails, the “fisherman” wait for some fish to take the bait.
Etymology : phishing. Blending/CLipping of p(assword) + h(arvesting) + (f)ishing; [possibly ME, from OE fisc ‘fish’ native word? + -ing ‘suffix’]
Source : Forbes magazine p.89
Last modified: 10 June 2008