Phishing, vishing and smishing are fraudulent attempts to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details via emails, letters, calls or text messages which are made to look and sound like they've come from a trusted company.
Vishing is a type of scam that happens by phone and smishing is done via SMS/text.
These messages can be very convincing and look or sound like genuine messages sent by organisations you already deal with – and may even appear within an existing message string from a known organisation.