Phishing

The act of Phishing pertains to the attempt of a scammer to pretend that it is a trusted institution or individual so as to lure people into disclosing sensitive information about them such as Social Security numbers, passwords, banking details and the like.

Phishing is branded as a cybercrime administered through contacting potential victims through email, phone, or SMS. The information that the perpetrator would get would be used to access important accounts in the aim of identity theft and usurp of funds.

The very first Phishing case had been filed back in 2004 against a teenager who resided in California; said teenager imitated “America Online”. The fake website had been able to harvest sensitive information from its supposed users. This resulted into the acquisition of credit card details which the scammers used to withdraw money from these accounts.