Phishing (pronounced “fishing”) is when criminals send e-mail by the thousands or millions in hopes of tricking unsuspecting members/consumers into sharing confidential information. These messages often include a link to a fraudulent Web site. By masquerading as a trustworthy person or business, criminals “fish” for online users’ financial information and passwords.

Now there’s “vishing” where criminals use a telephone number instead of e-mail. When you call an 800 number they give you, often in a recorded message, the person or another automated response tells you, for example, your account is closed and to reactive it, please enter your personal and/or account information on the phone keypad.