Phishing is a term denoting emails that invite the recipient to visit a fraudulent Website designed to extract personal financial data such as credit card numbers, account usernames and passwords, social security numbers, etc.
Your bank will not usually send your that sort of information by email. They will certainly NOT request you to log on and provide your username and id "because security has been compromised."
By hijacking the trusted brands of well-known banks, online retailers and credit card companies, phishers are able to convince up to 5% of recipients to respond to them.
You'll find a comprehensive discussion on the subject of Phishing and an archive database at This website.
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