A1 Guard – The first Platform of its Kind to Prevent Fraudsters From Contacting a Potential Victim

Business goes

Mtel – the first telecom in Bulgaria had gained a reputation as an arrogant brand that does not care enough for its customers. A decision has been made to rebrand it. As a part of that rebranding and clearing of the reputation, some socially responsible projects had to be created, products and services with big value for costumers but for free.

Research

I and my team had started researching for social problem we could be useful. After selecting a few problematic topics in society, we moved on to in-depth focus group interviews to weed out the topics that most excite our users and we could give some help.

The problem

A big problem in Bulgaria among the elderly people are telephone frauds. One in four Bulgarians has an acquaintance or relative who has been the victim of a telephone fraud attempt. Fraudsters mainly call for money (89% of cases), for real estate fraud (9%) and document fraud (8%).

The Telephone fraud has many faces

One in four knows a victim of a telephone fraud attempt.
In the last 2 years there are 2794 telephone frauds.
The potential victims are mostly our parents.

Telephone fraud has existed for years, resisting information campaigns and police raids. The victims are the most sensitive part of the members of our society – the elderly. Victims of telephone fraud are left without their savings, which deprives them of the opportunity of decent old age.

Profile of potential victims – these are our parents. Mostly mothers, but no one is insured and fathers, grandmothers, spouses and children became victims of the call.

The obstacle to eradicating the problem is that phone scammers are constantly changing the story version. They follow media campaigns, apply law enforcement warnings and use the information in their scenarios to sound plausible.

Buyer Personas

Jonathan, 31, Sofia
Brand Manager

“I have told my grandparents many times, not to trust strangers.
I would like to be able to verify the unknown numbers that call them.”

Motivation:
Jonathan loves his grandparents and wants to protect them.

Frustration:

He worries that he is far from his grandparents.

He worries that there is not enough time for them.
He fears that his grandparents are not protected.
He is afraid that they will be deceived and robbed.
He fears for the health of his grandparents.

Brooke, 70, Mezdra,
Retiree

“Unfortunately, I`ve to admit that I`m already too old and can easily fall victim to scams.
I need of protection.”

Motivation:
Brooke doesn`t want to lose her savings.

Frustration:

She is afraid that she is not able to care about herself.
She worries that she may lose her savings.
She she is disappointed that she cannot trust people.
She is unhappy with the fact that she lives far away from her children and grandchildren.

Brooke lives with her husband in Mezdra – a small village in northern Bulgaria. They have been retired for a long time, live modestly, but they have some savings, set aside with a lot of work and deprivation. They have a daughter who lives with her family abroad and a son who lives with his family in the capital.
Last year, they received a call from a man who introduced himself as a doctor and said that her son had been involved in an accident, he was in hospital and has needed extra money for surgery. Fortunately, his grand parents did not lose money, but they experienced a shock and this affected their health.

The challenge

There are many call block applications, but they are not flexible enough, also the elderly are not quite technological literate and not be able to defend themselves. Some of them still only use a feature phone.

Solutions

A1 Guard is a free application that interrupt fraudsters from contacting a potential victim.

Free application for everyone, without restriction of which telecommunication company subscribers to mobile service
Offers mobile and landline solution *
Available for free on Google Play and the App Store
Works on the principle of creating a list of allowed numbers from the directory “Protected” subscriber
Offers complete statistics for off-list calls to the “Managing” (administering) subscriber

* Technical restrictions apply to landline, featurephone and iOS smartphones.

Conception

The admin (young relative) is able to protect up to 5 users (elderly relatives).
The Admin installs the application on its device and creates a profile.
The admin adds its phone number and sends a request to protect the Protected User phone number.
The Protected User installs the application on its device and creates a profile.
The Protected User allows to be protected from the Admin phone number.
The admin can create a white list with phone contacts who are free to call. For all other incoming calls, the admin can choose:
– to resolve them
– to redirect them
– to block them.

User Flow

Registration Flow

Protected user is a person who incoming calls is being handled.
Admin is the user who administrate incoming calls of protected person
Alert refers to the push notification with alert sound during incoming call ringing process
Block refers to blocking of incoming call if
the number is not included in the whitelist