Definitions

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

  • noun 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.
  • noun The act of circumventing security with an alias.
  • verb Present participle of phish.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Respelling of fishing ("trying to find"). In Usenet newsgroups, cracker and pirate groups used variant spellings of phish and warez (i.e. wares) to evade scans and filters by mainstream servers policing the ARPAnet/Internet.

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Examples

Comments

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  • "The act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. The e-mail directs the user to visit a Web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers, that the legitimate organization already has. The Web site, however, is bogus and set up only to steal the user’s information." --Webopedia

    March 12, 2009

  • I used to have a (non-English-speaker) lecturer who would consistently pronounce this word as pissing. Try to keep a straight face.

    December 8, 2009