phishing

phishing - The act of sending an email to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into giving up private information that will be used for identity theft. The email 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.

Report phishing e-mails to the government. It has an e-mail address to which you can forward the messages:

phishing-report@us-cert.gov

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