[Air-l] Spamming As "Phishing" .. ?

[Mike Ayers]

Today on the trusty yahoo.com news, i read an article that referred to the new 
wave of identity spamming as "phishing", defined by this journalist as "The e-
mail is an example of "phishing" -- the use of spam, or unwanted junk e-mail, 
to lure computer users to Web sites that look like those of reputable 
companies, and to deceive them into divulging personal financial data" and  a 
CNN.com journalist last month defined people who Phish as Phishers: "Phishers 
first steal a company's identity and then use it to victimize consumers by 
stealing their credit identities"  


Does any one know how this word got synonymous with online scam/spammers?  Who 
coined this term?  And, bear with me, as i revert back to my days on the 
american highways following a certain band that shares the same name, is there 
any connection to the hippie band, Phish? That I doubt, but still curious to 
why these spammers have this new name...i feel like there are some cultural 
connotations somewhere...

in the dark,
-mike

-- 
Mike Ayers
Department of Sociology
Miguel Hall
Manhattan College
Riverdale, New York 10471
michael.ayers at manhattan.edu
O:(718) 862-7406 F:(718)862-8044




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