whodis

Inspiration

Looking into the quickly emerging fraudulent phone call scam methodologies that are being introduced, we saw that there were certain approaches scammers are taking that are near impossible to detect prior to being already scammed. We wanted to create an easy-to-use application that would screen incoming numbers let users lower the risk of falling for these scams without needing to sacrifice taking calls from real numbers.

What it does

Our whodis application runs in the background and when an incoming call is detected, the app dispatches an overlaying notification that alerts the user about additional information about the incoming number so that a stronger decision can be made about whether or not to take a call.

In addition to allowing the user to make better guesses to allow for a reduction of risk, whodis eliminates worry about missing calls. Being an elegant solution that is both proactive and preventative, whodis provides a positive-sum privacy experience.

Future plans for whodis

Blacklist Additions: Phone calls can also be compared to known lists of fraudulent numbers. Users would receive a warning alert showing that it is highly unadvised to take the call.
UI Integration: Move towards removing the overlay altogether and instead integrate the alerts with the existing caller interface.
Friend Calls: Curate a list of trusted numbers that will not be validated every time to reduce the number of redundant alerts for users.
Easy Blocking: Add a feature that would allow users to block numbers directly from the incoming call screen.
Send Reports: Add a feature that would allow users to report fraudulent numbers either in the call screen or in the app.