Pakistani Man Manages to Defraud USPS Out of $126M Without Ever Setting Foot in US: Police
Pakistani law enforcement arrested a man Tuesday who is accused of defrauding the U.S. Postal Service by running a counterfeit postage scheme, costing the agency $126 million.
Cybercrime investigators had been searching for Faheem Akram, 33, for weeks, the Associated Press reported.
They raided several locations and finally apprehended him after acting on specific intelligence.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida said Akram was indicted last month by a federal grand jury.
He stands accused of running LabelsBank.com, an unauthorized website that sold over 5.1 million counterfeit postage labels to more than 5,200 customers.
U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida said last month that, “The alleged scheme was simple but massive: sell counterfeit postage online at fixed, cut-rate prices, as little as $2 per label, regardless of a package’s weight, size, or destination, enabling customers to avoid legitimate Postal Service charges.”
“The indictment alleges more than 5.1 million counterfeit labels and more than $126 million in losses,” he added. “Through the work of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and our prosecutors, the website has been shut down, the domain seized, and federal charges brought against its alleged operator, a Pakistani national.”
Bladismir Rojo, Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service for the Miami Division, added, “Our reach goes beyond our borders.”
“Transnational criminal organizations defrauding the Postal Service and targeting U.S consumers by pushing phony postage will be found and brought to justice,” he declared.
USPS obtained a court order that authorized the shutdown and seizure of Akram’s website.
Customers used Akram’s fake labels to send packages at prices far below the regular postal rate, which caused massive revenue loss for the USPS.
The Postal Service has highlighted similar schemes in the past to alert the public, such as fake stamps being sold on black market social media sites.
Last year, the agency started an online reporting system for citizens to provide tips about potential counterfeiting.
Akram’s website was reportedly run from August 2023 to September 2026 and had 16 different bank accounts, some of which were held by Akram, his brother, wife, sister, and aunt.
It is still undecided whether Akram will be extradited to face the indictments from the Southern District of Florida, or if he will be put on trial in Pakistan.
Akram is charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and to make and sell counterfeit postage stamps, five counts of making and selling counterfeit postage stamp labels, and four counts of wire fraud.
If he is extradited and convicted, Akram faces a maximum of five years in prison on the conspiracy and counterfeit postage counts and 20 years in prison on each of the wire fraud counts.
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