The list of phishing incidents covers important or noteworthy events in the history of phishing. 1980s 1987 A phishing technique was described in detail in a paper and presentation delivered to the 1987 International HP Users Group, Interex. 1990s The term "phishing" is said to have been coined by the well known spammer and hacker in the mid-90s, Khan C. Smith. The first recorded mention of the term is found in the hacking tool AOHell (according to its creator), which included a function for attempting to steal the passwords or financial details of America Online users. 1995 Phishing on AOL was a technique used by the warez community, who traded in unlicensed software, and black hat hackers to steal credit card information and commit other online crimes. AOL would suspend the accounts of individuals caught using certain keywords in chat rooms related to counterfeiting software or stolen accounts. The term "phishing" originated from the use of the <>< symbol in chat transcripts as a way to disguise references to illegal activity and evade detection by AOL staff. The symbol resembled a fish, and, combined with the popularity of phreaking, led to the term "phishing." AOHell, a program released in 1995, allowed hackers to impersonate AOL staff and send instant messages to victims asking them to reveal their passwords by claiming to need to "verify your account" or "confirm billing information". AOHell was a custom-written program used for phishing and warezing on AOL. In an effort to combat phishing, AOL added a warning to all instant messages stating that they would never ask for passwords or billing information. However, users with both AOL and non-AOL internet accounts (such as those from an ISP) could still phish AOL members without consequences. In 1995, AOL implemented measures to prevent the use of fake credit card numbers to open accounts, leading to an increase in phishing for legitimate accounts. AOL deactivated accounts involved in phishing, and eventually the warez scene on AOL was shut down, causing most phishers to leave the service. 2000s 2001 The first known direct attempt against a payment system affected E-gold in June 2001, which was followed up by a "post-9/11 id check" shortly after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. 2003 The first known phishing attack against a retail bank was reported by The Banker in September 2003. 2004 It is estimated that between May 2004