phising

A practice consisting of sending a generally indiscriminate message by e-mail or by some other instant messaging system, thus faking the identity of a financial institution or other organization for the purpose of obtaining the personal data of addressees, to be used subsequently for fraudulent purposes.

This type of message urges the addressees to click on links that apparently lead to the website of the institution supplanted, but in reality bring victims to fraudulent websites where cybercriminals can steal their usernames and passwords, credit card numbers, etc.