When his friend lost $30,000 through a financial scam from Nigeria, Sorin Mihailovici thought the world needed an app.
The brain behind Edmonton-based Scam Detector Inc. has already gone global with his smartphone application that warns people from notorious scams.
Mihailovici said his Scam Detector app currently gives information on 600 scams from nine categories: travel, finances, auto sales, social networking, houses and property, employment, online auction, telephone and face to face scams.
It educates consumers on how these scams work and teaches them how to prevent financial fraud.
Mihailovici said users can simply look up the category, choose from a topic, and the app provides them with an answer.
“We have a feed from all the major publications in the world and they inform us when a scam has been perpetrated,” he said.
By the summer of 2013 Mihailovici expects the app will have updated to almost 1,000 scams. He already has two million users in more than 110 countries.
While the app is free, he said his company now has Alberta-based ATB Financial as a sponsor.
“It’s a bit of a national phenomenon and we are very happy to have ATB on board to put their name on fighting fraud,” he said.
ATB Financial senior manager of brand strategy, Raegan Sather, said online banking is an easy way to transfer money. Yet many of her customers are wary of it, afraid to open a door to money fraud.
“This is a way for people to know when they are getting an e-mail, if it is legitimate,” she said.
“There’s all sorts of fraud but financial institutions would never e-mail a customer to ask for passwords. And the information within scam detector helps verify that.”
People without smartphones can also access information on financial fraud through the ATB Financial website (ATB.com).
All the scams are listed on the Scam Detector Inc. website at scam-detector.com.
