The defination of phishing given in wikipedia.com, it is a process of trying to get some privacy information such as username, password, bank acoount and etc by act as a trustwothy entity that communicate in electronic form. The initial term is phishing was' fishing' , in year 1987 and started use term of 'phishing' in year 1996, it probably influence by word 'phreaking'.
Phishing usually carried out through e-mail or instant messaging. It will lead users to enter into an fake website that are looks and feels very similar to a legitimate website. Although there are ways to identify it, it needs professional and complicated skill to detect it.
Let's have a look of some example of phishing, ( click on the image to view larget image )
i)
ii)
iii)
There are few methods to prevent loss from phishing,
i) Don't forge easily although there is a header. As mentioned in the Example (ii) of phishing, there is a YAHOO logo as the header of the mail, don't try to move on but analyse the validity of mail.
ii) Avoid filling out forms in e-mail messages. We can't know the certainty where the data will be sent and the information may have several stops on the way to the recipient. While information being send, there might be third party accessing ourinformation be it reach to destination. Usually, reputable company do not request their customer to update their file or verify their privacy and security information through e-mail, they will contact the customer dierectly.
iii) If you click on a link in an e-mail message, veirfy the legitimacy of the web address with the company DIRECTLY before sending any privacy information.Some of the phishing will add some other link such as agreement, policy and etc. Only those link is linked to the company but the link to obtain your information might not from the company.
Reference:
Watch Out for "Phishing" Emails Attempting to Capture Your Personal Information. 28 June 2009, from http://www.privacyrights.org/ar/phishing.htm
