Phishing over the web can be typified with that of trying to get personal information for mischievous use. Receiving unsolicited emails coming from unknown origins which would make you believe that you have won something in a lottery or a sweepstakes contest are the common forms of phishing.
The people who send you these emails are merely after your personal information. They would get information such as credit card numbers, bank accounts, and other useful information to which they can use over the web, an open space of being able to transact with a lot of security breaches that most people know today.
Some would even provide links to certain pages which are professionally done, all the more deceiving a person that the offer is for real. But the next time you get such e-mails from an unknown source, all you have to do is just think about it for a second. How can you get such mails from someone or something that you don’t even remember joining? The rest is history.