Phishing is typically carried out by email spoofing or instant messaging, and it often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one. Phishing emails may contain links to websites that are infected with malware. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, banks, online payment processors or IT administrators are commonly used to lure unsuspecting victims. The word is a neologism created as a homophone of fishing due to the similarity of using a bait in an attempt to catch a victim. Phishing is the attempt to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details (and sometimes, indirectly, money), often for malicious reasons, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Also note that although the URL of the bank's webpage appears to be legitimate, the hyperlink would actually be pointed at the phisher's webpage. Note the misspelling of the words received and discrepancy as recieved and discrepency. The sender is attempting to trick the recipient into revealing confidential information by "confirming" it at the phisher's website. An example of a phishing email, disguised as an official email from a (fictional) bank.
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