Origins of the word "phishing".

The word "phishing" comes from the analogy that Internet scammers are using e-mail lures to "fish" for passwords and financial data from the sea of Internet users. The term was coined in the 1996 timeframe by hackers who were stealing America On-Line accounts by scamming passwords from unsuspecting AOL users.

"Ph" is a common hacker replacement for "f", and is a nod to the original form of hacking, known as "phreaking." Phreaking was coined by the first hacker, John Draper (aka "Captain Crunch"). John invented "hacking" by creating the infamous Blue Box, a device that he used to hack telephone systems in the early 1970s.

Over the years, phishing attacks grew from simply stealing AOL dialup accounts into a more sinister criminal enterprise. Phishing attacks now target users of online banking, payment services such as PayPal, and online e-commerce sites. Phishing attacks are growing quickly in number and sophistication. In fact, since August 2003, most major banks in the United States, the U.K. and Australia have been hit with phishing attacks.

Source: www.anti-phishing.org