phishing

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[edit] English

[edit] Etymology

Respelling of fishing (trying to find), perhaps to evoke phone, and perhaps by analogy with such respellings as phreak and phat.

[edit] Pronunciation

Homophones: fishing

[edit] Noun

Singular
phishing

Plural
uncountable

phishing (uncountable)

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Wikipedia

  1. (computing) The act of sending email that falsely claims to be from a legitimate organization. This is usually combined with a threat or request for information: for example, that an account will close, a balance is due, or information is missing from an account. The email will ask the recipient to supply confidential information, such as bank account details, PINs or passwords; these details are then used by the owners of the website to conduct fraud.
  2. Can also mean to circumvent security with an alias.

[edit] Synonyms

[edit] Translations

[edit] Related terms

[edit] Verb

phishing

  1. Present participle of phish.

[edit] See also

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