Phishing

What I Know: That they send you emails that say for example that you have pending notifications so you click on the link but it is a fake Facebook sight so when you sign in you are basically giving them your username and password.

Why do they create these fake websites?
What do these websites do with your information(username and password)?
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/phishing.html
http://www.microsoft.com/security/online-privacy/phishing-symptoms.aspx
http://www.phishtank.com/what_is_phishing.php

• It is the act of attempting to acquire information like usernames, passwords, credit cards info, etc.
• They do this by disguising themselves as a known website in an electronic communication, like the website of a bank or Facebook, etc.
• There are different types of fishing techniques: phishing, spear phishing, clone phishing and whaling. 
• phishing attempts at specific individuals or companies is spear phishing, attackers gather personal information of their targets to increase their chance of success. 
• several recent fishing attempts have been to executive of companies or important wealthy people this is known as whaling. 
• phishers have used images instead of text making it harder for anti-phishing filters to detect the text in common phishing emails
• phone phishing also exists you get an email to number a phone like from your bank that there are problems with your account and once you dial it tells you to give them your account number and pin or password. This vishing or voice phishing.  

I always get spam email from Facebook saying I have pending notifications, now I will be more careful and don't open  the link in these emails. Just access the page from where I ussually access it, to avoid giving phishers my personal info.

Why do they do this and how do they get their targets?