Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To request confidential information over the Internet under false pretenses in order to fraudulently obtain credit card numbers, passwords, or other personal data.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To engage in phishing.
  • noun An instance of a phishing attack.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration (influenced by phreak) of fish.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Back-formation from phishing.

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Examples

  • Details captured in this manner were traded with other people and were referred to as "phish".

    Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph 2011

  • The little Goodmail flag on messages in user inboxes tells mail recipients that the mail is actually from who it purports to be from, and not a phish, which is particularly important for mail from financial institutions and the like. —

    Goodmail Is Back Trying to Sell Access to Your In-Box - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com 2008

  • Out of curiosity, I did call the phish's toll-free number using my office phone and got an automated message that simply said, "Thanks for calling" and then disconnected.

    Beware of 'phishy' text messages on your cell phone 2009

  • My account may have been compromised through a process called phish-spam-phish, which

    WBAY Action 2 News 2010

  • The account may have been hit through a process called phish-spam-phish, where a hacker will phish for usernames and passwords, then send out spam through those people's accounts, then use links to phish for more.

    Top Tech News 2010

  • Last week, PandaLabs threat researcher Sean-Paul Correll logged on to his Twitter profile page and noticed "phish" was one of the Top 10 "trending topics" being Tweeted about by Twitterers.

    Twitter used to spread scareware 2009

  • And then like how it happens sometimes, the paper got pushed inside a drawer and neither of us wrote about that brilliant meal that proved that Bengali food is not all 'phish' We had started with an amazing hyacinth beans patties steamed in banana leaves with tomato-khajurer chatni.

    Cabbage curry with Bengali spices 2007

  • Identity thieves "phish" for personal information, like account numbers and PINs, which they use to sink your good credit (while sucking every penny out of your bank account).

    Click Fraud Threatens Web 2004

  • I realised this was an attempt to "phish" away my money.

    nst online 2010

  • I realised this was an attempt to "phish" away my money.

    nst online 2010

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