phishing

British

/ ˈfɪʃɪŋ /

noun

the practice of using fraudulent e-mails and copies of legitimate websites to extract financial data from computer users for purposes of identity theft

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of phishing

C21: from fishing in the sense of catching the unwary by offering bait; computer-hacker slang often replaces f with ph

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

AI has made this type of attack more dangerous because it can generate thousands of personalized phishing emails to collect more passwords faster.

From The Wall Street Journal

Makaruk says Russia's FSB Security Service is issuing its own warnings, telling soldiers not to fall for the scam, but he says the phishing operation has had a disruptive psychological effect.

From BBC

The practice, known as "smishing" - SMS and phishing - aims to trick people into giving personal details by making texts look as though they come from reputable companies.

From BBC

Other concerns range from copyright violations to scammers using AI tools to produce perfectly spelled phishing emails.

From Barron's

From perfectly spelled phishing emails to fake videos of government officials, artificial intelligence is changing the game for Interpol's cat-and-mouse fight against cybercrime at its high-tech war rooms in Singapore.

From Barron's

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023