---
title: What is phishing?
description: "Phishing is a method of trying to gather personal information using deceptive e-mails and websites that appears to be from a legitimate company.  This is usually done by including a link that will appear to take you to the company’s…"
url: "https://support.bluspider.com/kb/what-is-phishing/"
updated: "2024-08-09"
category: Security
---

# What is phishing?

Phishing is a method of trying to gather personal information using deceptive e-mails and websites that appears to be from a legitimate company. 

This is usually done by including a link that will appear to take you to the company’s website to fill in your information – but the website is a clever fake and the information you provide goes straight to the people behind the scam.

The term ’phishing’ is a spin on the word fishing. criminals are dangling a fake ’lure’ (the email that looks legitimate, as well as the website that looks legitimate) hoping users will ’bite’ by providing the information that has been requested – such as credit card numbers, account numbers, passwords, usernames, and more.

Source: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing)