Inspiration
My partner and I decided to build Scam Shield because many people we know, especially the elderly have been scammed or are prone to be scammed. One of our friend's grandmother was recently scammed out of $1000 through a phishing email. We wanted to make something that could help people know if an email is legitimate or not.
What it does
The user can simply copy paste text messages, emails, or chat scripts and then our website provides an output that breaks the input down, including a threat score, categorization of the scam type (e.g., phishing, urgency tactics, credential harvesting), and red flags identified in the text.
How we built it
Frontend Layer: Built using HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript (index.html, style.css, script.js) to make the dashboard that has quick-test sample buttons and live indicators. AI Part: Passing user text inputs securely over HTTPS and handling a structured JSON output parsing.
Challenges we ran into
We had trouble getting the buttons to work. We also encountered 400/404 errors due to mismatched model identifiers which we did fix.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Successfully deploying a fully functional cybersecurity tool that runs directly out of GitHub Pages. Designing a sleek and good looking user interface with quick-test sample buttons.
What we learned
We learned how to make a Github repository and how to use github. We did however do most of our coding in VS Code because we were more used to that. We also learned how to debug when there are multiple files involved. We also learned how to correctly use the github copilot to help us do that.
What's next for Scam Shield
Next we would like to build a secure backend to eliminate API key vulnerabilities and also to relieve users of the need to getting their own API key. We would also like to add other features like audio and image uploads. The main thing we want to do is make this accessible to the elderly so we will make accessibility changes such as bigger buttons, etc.
