Phishing and Pharming

Phishing is usually conducted through sending fake e-mail messages to you that appear to be from the staff of sites like Facebook, PayPal, etc. that actually have the intention of stealing your money or personal information. It could be an e-mail that seems to be from your bank and asks you to reenter your credit card information for "better protection" of your account, and when you send the information back to their e-mail, they can easily steal your money or information.

Pharming is a different kind of a scam, in which you get a link to confirm your account information on PayPal or your Bank site, etc. for some "maintenance" of accounts, and when you click on the confirmation link on the e-mail, it will redirect you to a fake website which looks like the real website, and once you've entered your personal or credit card information, it will be sent to the scammer and your money may be taken. 

The best way to prevent getting scammed like this is either to always manually type the web address of the site you're visiting, example: "www.google.com", and to always check with your bank by a telephone call or a visit to their actual site, before you give them any information asked from the e-mail itself. Actual banks and companies will rarely ask you to confirm your information by an e-mail, mostly because they are aware of there being many scams through this method.

The best advice i can give you is to be suspicious! Always be skeptical when asked for personal data by an e-mail or chat program.