Texas Teenager Wants To Protect Seniors From Cyber Fraud

Last summer, an 85-year old man living in San Jose, CA, received an unusual message on his phone. The message asked him to relinquish his personal and bank information at once. When he consulted his son and his family in Frisco, Texas, they warned against revealing any information because the message was clearly a scam. 

Tejasvi Manoj, his granddaughter, a junior at Lebanon Trail high School, was surprised that her grandfather hadn’t identified the message as fraudulent even though it was immediately obvious to her and her parents. “I realized that as kids, we’re taught cybersecurity a lot in school, and adults also find out about cybersecurity measures in their workspaces. But older adults don’t have those same resources, they don’t really have the same education that most of us have,” she said during an interview with India Currents.

Los Angeles-born Manoj moved to Frisco, Texas, with her parents when she was in third grade. “My parents are both software engineers, so I grew up a lot around technology and coding in general,” she said. At school, she joined the Girls Who Code Club and, ever since, has wanted a career in tech. 

After the incident with her grandfather, Manoj did some research and discovered that nearly 75% of adults over 65 didn’t understand basic cybersecurity practices like two-factor authentication and could not identify deepfakes. She also found that fewer than 20% of adults 50 and over were confident navigating the digital world. 

On average, elder fraud costs its victims an average of $33,915 per person, yet only one in five report the crime to authorities. Seniors clearly needed a resource to give cybersecurity assistance 24/7, and Manoj had a hunch that generative AI could offer a solution. 

Over the next few months, she developed an application called Shield Seniors, which allows seniors to access information about cybersecurity best practices and verify whether the messages they receive are genuine or scams. 

Manoj explains that the application – currently in the demo stage – has four functions. Through the Learn function, the user receives crucial information about best cybersecurity practices in easily digestible language. Under the Ask section, the user can upload screenshots of the text they received into a chatbot. Next, in the Analyze function, an AI-powered chatbot determines whether the message is a scam or not. It also identifies common phishing techniques used in the text to inform the user. Finally, the Report section offers links to report the phishing attempt to authorities, who can then take the appropriate action.

Manoj created the tool by building on existing AI models from Gemini, a virtual assistant model for the Ask section and an image analysis model for the Analyze section. She used her coding skills to tailor it to dispense cybersecurity information specifically.

“If I type this exact same question in this exact same form into Gemini or ChatGPT, you will get a very long, lengthy response,” she explained. “Senior citizens aren’t able to read through that they don’t necessarily want to read through that. So the goal of this specific chatbot is to condense the information in a clear, simple, and concise manner.”

Even in its demo form, Shield Seniors was recognized as an Honorable Mention in the Congressional App Challenge by Congressman Keith Self of Texas’ 3rd Congressional District. Manoj has also demonstrated the application to AARP, the nation’s largest nonprofit advocating for individuals aged 50 and over. Her next goal is to raise funds and create a mobile app that older people all over the country can use. 

Manoj’s grandfather, who was the catalyst for her project, passed away in January. “I wasn’t able to show it to him in its full form, but he knew about it and was happy with it,” said Manoj. She views Shield Seniors as a tribute to her grandfather. “I think he would’ve liked where it’s gone.”