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About the Project
Inspiration
I decided to work on this project after seeing how common financial scams have become, especially through UPI messages, fake banking links, and urgent SMS asking for OTPs. Many people around me have received such messages and some were confused about whether they were real or fake. I felt that most scams work because people are not aware of simple warning signs. This motivated me to build a small tool that focuses on awareness and prevention.
What I Built
I built a simple web application called Financial Phishing & Scam Risk Checker. The tool allows users to paste a financial message, UPI-related text, or a banking/payment website URL and get a basic risk warning. The result is shown as Low, Medium, or High risk along with a short explanation so users understand why something might be dangerous.
How I Built It
The project is built using basic web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Instead of using complex AI models, I used rule-based logic. For example, the system checks for common scam words such as OTP, urgent, verify, or account blocked. For websites, it compares URLs with known financial domains and looks for common tricks used in fake or look-alike websites. I used basic JavaScript and CSS to design and write its content.
The focus was on keeping the logic simple, understandable, and reliable for a hackathon demo.
What I Learned
While building this project, I learned how phishing scams are designed and how small details like message wording or URL spelling can be dangerous. I also improved my understanding of JavaScript logic, input handling, and basic UI design. Another important learning was that even a simple idea can be impactful if it solves a real problem clearly.
Challenges Faced
One of the main challenges was deciding how strict the detection logic should be. If the checks were too strict, everything looked risky, and if they were too loose, scams could be missed. I also faced some UI and encoding issues while working with plain HTML and JavaScript, which I fixed through testing and refinement. Though i used ai for ideas, examples of phishing links and debugging but at last i made this simple, easy and important project in today's world.
Conclusion
This project is meant to be an awareness tool rather than a full security system. It helps users think carefully before responding to financial messages or visiting payment websites. I believe such simple tools can help reduce financial scam risks, especially for everyday users.
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