‘Pharmers’ hit online bank users with fraud scam: This could piggyback on spyware pretty easily. All it would take, really, would be a change to your HOSTS file, and there’s no URL mismatch to draw your attention to it.

The first way is to send virus-laden e-mails that install small software programs on users’ computers. When a user tries to go to his bank’s Web site, the program redirects the browser to the pharmers’ fake site. It then asks a user to update information such aslogons, PIN codes or driver’s license numbers…

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1. Comment by Anthony, April 26, 2005 7:54 am

   Um, I guess nobody told these people, but “pharming” is taken; it’s been used for at least seven years (to my knowledge) to describe the genetic modification and cultivation of commercial crops which contain a protein of medicinal value – a hormone, an enzyme, an antigen, or whatever. That said, the two definitions seem to be pretty much neck and neck on Google at the moment, so may the best neologism win!

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