Scam detection app targets cons

Sorin Mihailovici suffers from voluntary insomnia.

"Last night I slept three hours," says the Romanian native, and, for him, the number is not unusual. Mihailovici works during the day at Omni Television in downtown Edmonton. Outside normal office hours, instead of resting or putting on a leotard and fighting crime, he settles into his second job: polishing and expanding Scam Detector, the anti-fraud mobile phone app he conceived last summer.

He's invested tens of thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours into the program, which catalogues the countless cons perpetrated around the world for the benefit of anyone who cares to read about them.

A cruise through the schemes listed on scam-detector.com can shake one's faith in humanity - from royal Nigerian paupers to faux-FBI investigators, it seems there's very little we balk at when it comes to bilking one another.

Mihailovici, engaged in payment negotiations with major corporate sponsors and launching Scam Detector on Android phones on July 11, might be about to cash out himself.

"It's the largest fraud-prevention resource in the world," he says. "Right now I have over two million users. Hopefully, within the next year or so, I'll have over five, six million users."

After a friend lost $ 30,000 to an elaborate, years-long sting in 2006, Mihailovici made a short film about the dangers of online fraud. 419: The Nigerian Scam made a bit of a splash upon release, and much of the feedback Mihailovici received wistfully wished there was an app for that. He decided to make one.

Along the way he's grown the company to 12 employees, including Edmonton-based computer programmers Chris Martyniuk and Joel Burford. Mihailovici, 35, speaks warmly of his adopted hometown.

He came to Edmonton in 2001 to cover the World Championships in Athletics for Romanian sports television.

"I just decided to stay," he says. "Back in the day eastern Europe wasn't that great. You have to look at your future. I decided to sacrifice my present for my future. That's the best decision I've ever taken."

lkelly@edmontonjournal.com

Twitter.com/LewisHKelly

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BARACK OBAMA'S 'OFFICIAL' BIRTH CERTIFICATE IS A FRAUD EXPOSED ON MAINSTREAM MEDIA!!

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