phishing would be like me sending you a email or posting a add that said something like,

"hey talon Im a cute girl and I live three miles from you and would like to meet you. You can contact me at, htpp/here have a worm, virus, sign ya up for junk mail.com.

Think of it as fishing , except your getting people to bite on your virtual hook.

From the wiki:
Phishing is the act of attempting to acquire information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details (and sometimes, indirectly, money) by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.[1][2] Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, banks, online payment processors or IT administrators are commonly used to lure unsuspecting public. Phishing emails may contain links to websites that are infected with malware.[3] Phishing is typically carried out by email spoofing[4] or instant messaging,[5] and it often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one. Phishing is an example of social engineering techniques used to deceive users,[6] and exploits the poor usability of current web security technologies.[7]