# Uncovering the Shape of Fraud with Cosmos Explorer: Visual Metaphors Behind Millions of Transactions

DevFeed: [Uncovering the Shape of Fraud with Cosmos Explorer: Visual Metaphors Behind Millions of Transactions](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/uncovering-the-shape-of-fraud-with-cosmos-explorer-visual-metaphors-behind-millions-of-26301.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://medium.com/feedzaitech/uncovering-the-shape-of-fraud-with-cosmos-explorer-visual-metaphors-behind-millions-of-transactions-b98e4cf56e56?source=rss----e11168e7fe6b---4>)

Author: João Bernardo Narciso

Published: 2026-04-07T17:24:51Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Feedzai](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/feedzai.md>)

Topics: [Data visualization](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/data-visualization.md>), [data](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/data.md>)

Tags: [data](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/data.md>), [data-visualization](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/data-visualization.md>), [dataviz](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/dataviz.md>), [decision-making](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/decision-making.md>), [design](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/design.md>), [feedzai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/feedzai.md>), [fraud](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/fraud.md>), [fraud-detection](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/fraud-detection.md>), [patterns](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/patterns.md>), [research](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/research.md>)

## AI overview

Feedzai's Data Visualization Research team is developing Cosmos Explorer, an interface that uses universe-inspired visual metaphors to help analysts examine patterns, trends, outliers, and possible fraud across hundreds of millions or billions of transactions. The project explores how to preserve meaningful details at very large scale while supporting data analysts and data scientists.

## Source excerpt

Uncovering the Shape of Fraud with Cosmos Explorer: Visual Metaphors Behind Millions of Transactions The Data Visualization Research team is developing Cosmos Explorer, an interface that leverages universe-related visual metaphors to convey information about the billions of transactions processed by Feedzai. Pedro Cruz, professor at Northeastern University, partnered with Feedzai to bring this idea to life by contributing with his creativity and expertise to solve this challenging visualization problem. https://medium.com/media/1b2ecfadd91d204640462f89fa6ff67f/href When we look out into the universe, we don't just see emptiness. We see an unimaginable scale: billions of galaxies, each containing billions of stars, each a point of light carrying its own story. No single observer can take it all in at once. Yet with the right instruments, patterns emerge: the structure of the cosmos itself becomes visible. In the digital realm, there is another universe just as vast and intricate. Every day, hundreds of millions of events flow through Feedzai's system which assesses them to protect consumers all over the world. Each one is a unique data point (e.g., a purchase, a login, a transfer). Individually, they don't tell us much. Together they form a living universe of behavior that represents the diversity in people's lives. But fraud lurks in everyday transactions, with criminals trying to hide their activities within the sheer volume of transactions. The question is: how can we represent those patterns meaningfully, the normal behaviors and the fraudulent behaviors, the trends and the outliers, to empower data analysts and data scientists in their decision-making processes? The biggest challenge is scale. No one can look at billions of events one by one. Aggregation helps, but it smooths over the details, which often encode the most interesting signals like the faint outlines of fraud or unusual clusters of activity. But what if we could see it all at once? Not just a summa