Word
phishing
US/ˈfɪʃɪŋ/
UK/fˈɪʃɪŋ/
Definition
n. the crime of sending fake emails that look real to steal your passwords or bank details.
n. the fraudulent practice of sending emails purporting to be from reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information.
Examples
“I deleted the email because I knew it was phishing.”
“The company's IT department sent out a warning after several employees fell victim to a phishing scam targeting their login details.”
“Modern phishing campaigns have become increasingly sophisticated, employing social engineering tactics and high-fidelity visual clones of legitimate banking portals to bypass traditional security awareness.”
Examples
simple
“I deleted the email because I knew it was phishing.”
contextual
“The company's IT department sent out a warning after several employees fell victim to a phishing scam targeting their login details.”
complex
“Modern phishing campaigns have become increasingly sophisticated, employing social engineering tactics and high-fidelity visual clones of legitimate banking portals to bypass traditional security awareness.”
Usage
Uncountable when referring to the activity; often used as a modifier before nouns like 'attack', 'email', or 'scam'.
Pitfall
I was a victim of a phishing email.
I was a victim of phishing.
Phishing is the act itself; you can say 'a phishing email' (adjective use) or just 'phishing' (noun), but avoid 'a phishing' as a countable noun.
Real-World Examples
“The research focuses on a particular kind of email attack called spear phishing.” “An attacker could also sneak into an office computer through phishing, then access the controller network.” Etymology
A variant spelling of fishing, influenced by the earlier hacker subculture practice of replacing the letter f with ph, as seen in phreaking. The analogy rests on the use of lures to catch a target.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Synonyms
Domain
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/phishing