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I built a fraud detection app to help my parents

FiberOpticFox 2y ago
Recently, I've noticed that my parents have gotten an increase in scam calls and fraudulent text messages. The text messages are usually about winning money or people trying to start a friendship, but then abruptly start talking about investing. Scams are getting extremely clever now, so I built Fraud Fighter, app to detect potential scams. It has a simple chat interface where you walk through a potential scam you're experiencing, or can learn about popular scams in a role-play fashion. There's also an experimental real time call monitoring feature that listens to a phone call and makes suggestions. Unlike other mediums of communication like email where you have a spam filter, there's currently no aid to detect whether phone calls are genuine. I hope you try it out, and share it with your loved ones. Any feedback is appreciated. Keep an eye out for scams, and stay safe!
- j3kuntz 2y ago
  Awesome job on launching it early. I appreciate the idea behind the live call monitoring, but it will be so hard to use that tool while a call is going on, I think it might be too hard to use.
gregjor 2y ago
I have elderly and technically unsophisticated parents and family members. I tell them to assume all emails, messages, phone calls come from scammers unless they initiated the conversation. If they get a message or call from someone claiming to represent their bank, the IRS, “tech support,” etc. I tell them to hang up, look up the phone number, and call back. I understand the motivation behind the screening tool you describe, but at this point I think ignoring and blocking all unsolicited communication makes more sense.
- FiberOpticFox 2y ago
  I agree that ignoring unsolicited communication is an effective way to avoid email and call scams, and I tell my parents that too. But they don't always listen. Adults (and maybe kids and teens) can also use this app to learn and build awareness of different scams, like phishing and romance scams. There's an option there to role-play a fake scam. Do you think older adults who use social media might find this helpful for detecting fraudulent posts. Like say you scroll through FaceBook and see something, this could be a quick way to give a second opinion.

Recently, I've noticed that my parents have gotten an increase in scam calls and fraudulent text messages. The text messages are usually about winning money or people trying to start a friendship, but then abruptly start talking about investing. Scams are getting extremely clever now, so I built Fraud Fighter, app to detect potential scams. It has a simple chat interface where you walk through a potential scam you're experiencing, or can learn about popular scams in a role-play fashion. There's also an experimental real time call monitoring feature that listens to a phone call and makes suggestions. Unlike other mediums of communication like email where you have a spam filter, there's currently no aid to detect whether phone calls are genuine. I hope you try it out, and share it with your loved ones. Any feedback is appreciated. Keep an eye out for scams, and stay safe!

j3kuntz 2y ago
Awesome job on launching it early. I appreciate the idea behind the live call monitoring, but it will be so hard to use that tool while a call is going on, I think it might be too hard to use.

gregjor 2y ago

I have elderly and technically unsophisticated parents and family members. I tell them to assume all emails, messages, phone calls come from scammers unless they initiated the conversation. If they get a message or call from someone claiming to represent their bank, the IRS, “tech support,” etc. I tell them to hang up, look up the phone number, and call back. I understand the motivation behind the screening tool you describe, but at this point I think ignoring and blocking all unsolicited communication makes more sense.

FiberOpticFox 2y ago
I agree that ignoring unsolicited communication is an effective way to avoid email and call scams, and I tell my parents that too. But they don't always listen. Adults (and maybe kids and teens) can also use this app to learn and build awareness of different scams, like phishing and romance scams. There's an option there to role-play a fake scam. Do you think older adults who use social media might find this helpful for detecting fraudulent posts. Like say you scroll through FaceBook and see something, this could be a quick way to give a second opinion.