A scam call to her grandfather became a 100-volunteer nonprofit

Anshi Bhatt’s grandfather came to visit from India and got a welcome that no one orders: scam calls and texts from people posing as the IRS.

“It was very frustrating to see how these scammers were targeting older people,” Bhatt told The Virginian-Pilot. About two years later, at 15, she launched Frontlines Foundation, a youth-led nonprofit that teaches online safety to elderly and vulnerable communities.

The Pilot says it began as a group of friends presenting at nearby retirement homes. By July 2025 it had about 100 volunteers in eight countries, including Uzbekistan, India and Kenya, and had widened its audience to all ages, with talks at elementary schools and community centers too.

Workshops plus a spreadsheet of laws

Frontlines does two jobs. The first is the workshop: in July 2025, Bhatt and co-presenter Nilufer Karahan, a rising senior at Ocean Lakes High School and the group’s chief operating officer, led one at a senior living community in Norfolk. One resident, retired contractor Bob Gerling, said he would now spot scams faster.

The second is policy. The group keeps a state-by-state tracker of data privacy legislation and advocates for stronger digital protections across the U.S. It is an unusual side project for a teen nonprofit, and it fits a problem the Pilot frames with an FBI figure: scams aimed at people 60 and older drew 147,127 complaints and $4.9 billion in losses in the prior year, about 43 percent more than in 2023.

Bhatt’s pitch is generational. “It’s kind of like we grew up with technology in our hands,” she said, and “everyone should be able to access technology in a way that’s equitable and fair.”

She was an incoming Boston University freshman when the Pilot profiled her. The Pilot notes that people can apply to be a digital safety trainee, volunteer or intern through frontlines.foundation.