Sneak is dismayed to learn that the term “vishing” is gaining currency to describe phishing by voice - particularly via VoIP calls. The word phishing itself is apparently a contraction of “password harvesting”, and no doubt caught on due to its resonant allusion to a fish being caught hook, line and sinker. Vishing, however, sounds a bit wet, too much like “wishing”. It’s too flibbertigibbet a word to describe the crime of identity theft. Sneak prefers “Phocking” (a mishmash of vocal and phishing). What sounds better: “I suspect I have been vished by a visher” or “I’ve been phocked by a right bleedin phocker”?

13 Jul 2006