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Jonathan Simon
Jonathan Simon

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I'm 16, self-taught, and I built a fake transfer receipt detector for Nigerian businesses

#ai #showdev #firebase #javascript

Hi Dev.to 👋

I'm Jonathan, 16, from Bauchi, Nigeria. Self-taught developer. This is my first real product.

The Problem I'm Solving

Fake bank transfer receipts are destroying Nigerian small businesses.

A buyer sends a screenshot of a "successful transfer" — it looks 100% real. The vendor ships the goods. The money never lands. The vendor loses the goods AND the money, with zero recourse.

I've seen one of these fake receipts myself. If a vendor wasn't paying attention, they'd be scammed in 5 seconds.

What I Built

NaijaStack — a free business automation tool for Nigerian SMEs.

Key features:

  • AI Fake Transfer Detector — scans payment receipts (OPay, PalmPay, Moniepoint, GTBank, etc.) and flags fakes: edited fonts, wrong session IDs, doctored amounts
  • AI Magic Fill — type "Emeka bought 2 shirts for 15k" and the form fills itself
  • Order tracking — New → In Progress → Ready → Paid
  • Stock management — auto-decrements when you sell
  • Expense tracker + 7-day P&L dashboard
  • WhatsApp receipts, reminders, and rider dispatch
  • AI Business Assistant — ask "how much profit did I make this week?" and get a real answer

Tech Stack

  • Vanilla JS (no framework)
  • Firebase Firestore + Auth
  • Google Gemini API via Netlify Functions (API key never exposed)
  • PWA (installable, works offline)
  • Hosted on Netlify

What I Learned Building This

  1. Structure over features. My first version had nested event listeners that duplicated orders. Lesson: keep functions clean.
  2. Security is not optional. I moved my Gemini API key to a Netlify Function after realizing it was exposed in the browser.
  3. Small details matter. Toasts, skeleton loaders, an onboarding tour — these took 10% of the time and made a 90% difference in feel.

What I Need Help With

  • Security — I'm learning this as I go. Any tips on Firestore rules or API safety?
  • AI prompt engineering — how would you improve the fake receipt detection?
  • Getting my first users — I have zero. Advice welcome.

Try It

It's free during beta, no card:

https://naijastack.netlify.app

Feedback welcome — good or bad. I'd rather know what's broken than ship something mediocre.

— Jonathan

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