In plain English
This is a deceptive email made to look legitimate so a person lowers their guard. Its goal is to get the person to reveal sensitive information or take another harmful action. The sender falsely presents it as coming from a trusted source.
In context
Here, "phishing attempt" names the message as a suspected fraudulent email that pretends to come from a trusted source to trick someone into revealing sensitive information or taking another harmful action.
- Situation
- Responding to phishing, suspicious activity, fraud, and compromise alerts
- What it communicates
- names the suspected threat category for the message.
Meaning limits
By itself, the term does not establish whether the message actually succeeded in tricking anyone or causing harm.
Examples
“The email that appeared to come from the school office was a phishing attempt asking parents to confirm their bank details.”
“After a closer look, the receptionist marked the invoice email as a phishing attempt.”