Sharing Stories of Combating Fraud

De Lu (MPM ‘19) has a story to tell—lots of stories, in fact.    

The stories he tells are of bad actors leveraging the latest technology to commit consumer banking fraud on unsuspecting customers. Those stories are growing in number—and in cost.    

The FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report recorded more than 1 million complaints and approximately $20.9 billion in reported losses. Cyber-enabled fraud accounted for approximately $17.7 billion, or 85 percent, of those losses.  

De is a fraud risk analytics manager at Citizens Bank, where he helps turn complex fraud information into clear, actionable insights that support informed risk-management decisions.  

“We have lots of information. A part of my responsibility is to synthesize that information and put together a concise, simple story,” he said. “Data alone does not always tell people what they need to know. My role is to connect the patterns, explain why they matter, and make the story clear and actionable across the bank.”   

Actions are, indeed, necessary. A technology boom has led to an AI arms race where both the bad actors and the fraud fighters are using the increasingly sophisticated technology for vastly different purposes.   

Beyond his role at Citizens, De has begun sharing fraud-prevention insights with broader professional audiences. His writing has been published in the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners Insights blog, where he explores the human and behavioral dimensions of fraud and the importance of understanding the people behind fraudulent activity.  

A recent Federal Reserve Financial Services Risk Officer survey showed that 75 percent of respondents reported debit-card fraud attempts and 56 percent reported losses representing two-fifths of total payments-fraud losses at their institutions.   

De uses data storytelling to help business partners and decision-makers see the patterns behind the numbers, understand how risks are changing, and evaluate possible responses.  

To succeed, he draws on the lessons he learned in Northwestern Engineering's Master of Science in Project Management (MPM) program.  

“MPM was just a wonderful experience,” he said. “The program is relatively long, and during that time you can find internships, gain more experience, and spend more time improving your communication skills and people skills. It’s the perfect blend of analytics, business, management, and engineering.”  

De always felt comfortable with math, really anything numbers-related, and said the MPM program helped him vastly improve his communication and interpersonal skills.   

“What I learned most is how to build authentic, meaningful relationships,” he said. “That’s even more important nowadays with AI, where everything can seem so transactional. What really helps you are the meaningful relationships that you build.”   

The MPM program also taught De the importance of remaining professionally flexible. He knows it is a cliche, but he still encourages current MPM students to think of their careers as a marathon and not a sprint.   

“Don't let a degree define you,” he said. “You need to keep reimagining who you are and what you want to do in your life.”  

De is in that reimagining phase. In June, he began the master’s program in Learning Design, Innovation, and Technology at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He also joined the Harvard Innovation Labs as a Student i-lab member, where he began developing an early-stage educational app that brings together financial literacy and fraud prevention.  

He loves what he does now to help fight fraud. Is it what he will do for the rest of his career? De's future remains a story he continues to write.    

"Hardly anybody will do one job forever," De said. "It’s really important to understand who you are, what you are really good at, and what you want out of life so that you can tailor your career path.”