What is the term for an email scam that tries to trick people into giving out personal information?

Answer Details

Some online scams work by tricking a person, not by breaking into a system. An email that pretends to come from a trustworthy source, such as a bank or a well-known company, and asks the reader to click a link or reply with personal details like passwords or account numbers, is designed purely to deceive the reader into handing that information over voluntarily. This social-engineering approach is called phishing.

Hacking and cracking both describe gaining unauthorised access to a computer system, usually by exploiting a technical weakness rather than by emailing the victim directly. Spoofing means disguising the source of a communication, for example faking a sender's address, and it is often used as a technique inside a phishing attempt, but the scam that specifically targets people through deceptive emails asking for personal information is named for the act of "fishing" for that information: phishing.

Examination reminder: phishing is identified by the combination of an email or message and a request for personal information under a false pretence, not by any particular technical method of intrusion.