Phishing is a form of social engineering where the attacker pretends to be someone that the victim knows such as their boss, friend or colleague, or someone they would trust such as a representative to a popular company and sends them a message with a link, or an attachment, often telling them they have to pay for something, to trick them into giving their credit card information, or other personal information. Most often, these hackers will do phishing attacks through email and attach a link to it. These hackers can be from one singular scammer to criminal gangs. They research personal things about you so in their email they seem more credible and trustworthy, so the victim won't think twice about providing their information. They also often add a sense of urgency to the message to make it seem like you have to pay immediately. An example of a phishing email that is pretending to be your boss would be "I know you're leaving tonight for vacation, but can you please pay this invoice before the closing of business today?"