Though she’s only a teenager, Tejasvi has personal experience with elder fraud schemes.
Last summer, the Texas resident’s 86-year-old grandfather almost fell victim to a money-stealing scam. He received a phone call from someone posing as a family member and asking for $2,000. As he was about to send the money, a real family member caught on and stopped him from initiating the transaction.
“When I heard about this incident, I was really shocked because my grandfather was someone who was so cautious and so careful with his finances. I was really surprised that something like this could have happened to him,” Tejasvi said on “The Kelly Clarkson Show.” “I tried to find something online that could have helped him in case this happened in the future, and I couldn’t find anything useful.”
So Tejasvi took matters into her own hands, creating an app called Shield Seniors.
The app, specifically designed for older people who may be the targets of similar schemes, provides basic information about recognizing popular scams, allows users to report scams they’ve found and uses AI chatbots to provide real-time advice and education when the user needs it.
