How I Built Check Mo Muna: An AI Scam-Risk Analyzer for Filipinos
Scam messages are getting harder to recognize, so I built Check Mo Muna, a free Filipino-focused tool that helps users assess suspicious messages before they click or pay.
Users can paste a message or upload a screenshot. The system uses OCR, deterministic cybersecurity rules, and AI to identify potential phishing, fraud, payment scams, social engineering, and other red flags.
The interesting part is that AI doesn't make the final decision.
The analysis pipeline works in several stages:
screenshots are first processed with OCR, then the extracted text is evaluated by deterministic cybersecurity rules and AI. Their results are passed to a risk engine, which produces the final risk score, explanation, and recommendations.
The risk engine gives the deterministic security rules more weight than the AI:
70% Rules + 30% AI
This helps keep the system more predictable while still allowing AI to understand context.
I also spent time testing false positives, especially legitimate security warnings that contain words like OTP, PIN, or password.
The goal isn't to tell users:
“This person is definitely a scammer.”
Instead, Check Mo Muna answers:
“Here are the warning signs. Here's how risky this looks. Here's what you should consider doing next.”
The MVP is live and completely free:
Bago mag-click. Bago magbayad. Check mo muna.