A criminal justice professor at WSU was the victim of a theft. Now she hopes her work will help others. – The sunflower

Five years ago, someone stole Yumi Suzuki’s bank information and cashed fake checks under her name.

“How did that happen?” Suzuki said, recalling the experience. “I was sort of my own…private detective; I was trying to find out who did this.”

The ensuing fraud case required Suzuki to navigate various areas, including debt collectors, bankers, lawyers, and a lot of cybersecurity research.

“Immediately after this happened, I … used Google to search for basic information,” she said.

The situation prompted the associate professor of criminal justice to dramatically shift her research area from sexual violence to cybersecurity.

“I wanted my experience to be worth something,” she said.

Although her past and current research interests may seem unrelated, Suzuki noted overlaps between the two, such as victims’ experiences with emotional trauma.

“It’s not the same as sexual violence victims, but (fraud victims) ask themselves, ‘Why did I let it happen?’ “Nobody pays attention to me,” Suzuki said.

Suzuki said both areas can leave victims with little social support and that victims are often responsible for filing reports, investigations and more.

In 2023, the Internet Crime Complaints Office received more than 880,000 Complaints of cybersecurity fraud with potential losses exceeding $12 billion. Many of these complaints and losses came from people over 60 years old.

“Older victims lose the most because they have access to a lot of assets but at the same time don’t really have the resources to recover,” Suzuki said. “Imagine when you’re retired, when you’re 85 and dependent on your Social Security – it’s all gone because you were cheated.”

To combat cybersecurity fraud, Suzuki wrote an article on Money Mule cases with the help of an investigator from the California District Attorney’s Office.

The article was published in the FBI’s Law Enforcement Bulletin. Suzuki described the road to publication as a “long process.”

“We submitted it and received no response,” Suzuki said. “Six months later we heard, ‘Okay, we’re accepting your submission,’ and then another year went into the publishing process.”

Suzuki said she hopes the article will have an impact on people inside and outside of law enforcement.

“I’m hoping that because of the broader audience, some investigators will read it and take a cue, like, ‘Ah, maybe we need to change the policies and/or practices somehow,'” she said.