What is 'phishing'?

It's not much of a stretch from its homonym 'fishing' (a 'homonym' is a word that shares the same spelling or pronunciation (or both); each word, however, has a different meaning). In this case, however, it's not fishing in a lake or pond... it's 'phishing' out of your wallet.
In social computing parlance, 'phishing' is a criminal activity where the offenders manipulate people through computer systems and the Internet into divulging confidential information or performing certain actions such as credit card transactions. Throughout this fraudulent interaction, the attacker never approaches the victim face-to-face. At the same time, he gets confidential information about the victim that he can then use for his own benefit.
Recall those email messages proudly telling you that you are among a privileged few to have won $ 10,000 in a lucky draw? Or that you have to call this special (costs a fortune a minute) number and stay on the line for a good 10 minutes to realise you have a 50 per cent discount on a ridiculously high priced vacation that no one in his or her senses would pay for.