Phishing is the act of sending of electronic mail (email) that pretends to be from a legitimate and well established company or individual. The message typically asks for sensitive data such as credit card details or passwords to online accounts. They can claim be from sites such as eBay or ISP's like AOL and the email message is usually professionally designed with logo's and fonts which looks genuinely from those companies. Perhaps the most serious of all is the phishing emails claiming to be from banks such as HSBC, Barclays and Natwest. They can pose a much more significant security risk, which has forced online banks to improve the security process of their sites. In the last year HSBC has sent out to online bank customer an electronic device which produce a six digit unique code to add to their previous security. Online users should always stick to the fact that legitimate companies will never ask for any sensitive data by electronic mail.