“It was a surreal experience,” StFX student Lauren Harback says as she recalls winning $50,000 and first place at the Spark North Nova Scotia Pitch Competition for an initiative she’s building to keep Canadians safe from fraud.
“Having the opportunity to pitch at an event with such high stakes was incredible,” she notes on the event held June 10th at the Ignite Centre in New Glasgow, NS. “I actually really love pitching but this was at another level for me in terms of the competition and pressure. I was in complete shock and deeply honoured to place first. Receiving that level of validation on my concept from such a significant institution meant a lot.”
Ms. Harback, an Ottawa, ON native who graduated from StFX with her accounting degree in 2026 and who will complete her finance degree in May 2027, is developing a Canadian platform called ‘Is this a Scam?.’ The platform is built to combat fraud by combining a scam database, a public reporting tool, and victim resource supports that direct Canadians to the right help based on their specific situation.
Her initiative responds to a growing national issue. Canadians lose hundreds of millions of dollars annually to scams, she says, and many incidents go unreported. Through this work, she hopes to reduce the amount of fraud Canadians experience by helping them protect themselves.
Ms. Harback says her interest in the area began during her second year at StFX, when she began working in financial crime at the RCMP. “I have since spent the last two summers at Deloitte in their financial crime practice. After seeing the devastating financial and psychological impacts of scams on Canadians of all ages and personally knowing someone who nearly fell for a very sophisticated scam, I knew this was a massive problem in Canada and one I could help address. And then, ‘Is this a Scam?,’ was born.”
In the near term, she’s looking forward to incorporating the business, fully developing the scam identification tool, connecting with Nova Scotian communities, and launching the fully functional product.
“I also want to give back to the StFX entrepreneurship community, which has been so instrumental to my success. Long-term, I want Canadians to have a trusted, accessible tool and clear guidance to help them avoid online scams.”
Ms. Harback came to StFX on a Heather Reisman Women in Business scholarship, “which has been so helpful and for which I’m forever grateful.” Since November, she has pitched the ‘Is this a Scam?’ initiative at six events across Atlantic Canada: including Impact X (first place), BMO Apex (second place), the StFX Student Pitch Event (first place), and was selected as one of four recipients of a StFX Discover Box Micro-Grant and one of four recipients of the Wallace Internship. She also received a McBain Riley International Award, which funded her travel and participation at the 2026 International Financial Crimes Investigators Conference in Toronto, “which was another rewarding experience.”
Post-graduation, she plans to continue working in financial crime, earn her Chartered Professional Accountant and Certified Fraud Examiner designations, and keep developing her product to ensure Canadians can have access to a trusted tool to protect themselves from online fraud.
“StFX has been pivotal to my success,” she says. “I've always learned best in small classroom environments, and after visiting campus in the ninth grade, I knew it was the right fit. The professors at the Schwartz School of Business are unlike any other instructors I've ever encountered. They genuinely care about their students and actively support them both inside and outside the classroom. I want to especially highlight Dr. Neil Maltby, professor of entrepreneurship, whose mentorship has been an essential part of everything I've accomplished over the last year.”
