Economy

Pakistan arrests suspect in 126-million-dollar US postage fraud

LabelsBank sold five million counterfeit labels at two dollars each to 5200 customers, losses fell on the Postal Service while senders shipped below cost

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Pakistani authorities arrest man accused in $126 million US postage fraud scheme Pakistani authorities arrest man accused in $126 million US postage fraud scheme independent.co.uk

Pakistani authorities on Tuesday arrested a 33-year-old man accused of running an online counterfeit postage operation that United States prosecutors say cost the Postal Service more than $126 million. Faheem Akram, a resident of Khanewal in eastern Punjab province, was indicted in September by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida, which alleges he operated LabelsBank.com, an unauthorized website that sold more than 5.1 million counterfeit postage labels to more than 5,200 customers.

The economics of the scheme were straightforward. The labels typically cost $2 each, regardless of a package's weight, size or destination, letting customers ship at prices far below legitimate postal rates. A flat two-dollar label for a package of any size is not a price anyone could believe was legitimate; the 5,200 customers were buying the difference between two dollars and the real rate, and the Postal Service was supplying the difference. The $126 million figure represents the Postal Service's estimated losses, not the website's proceeds — at two dollars a label, sales came to something over ten million dollars.

According to Pakistani investigators, the operation ran from August 2023 through September 2026, and the money moved through 16 bank accounts held by Akram, his brother, his wife, his sister and his aunt. The arrest followed a weekslong search with raids across several parts of the country, carried out on intelligence, according to Atif Ameer, a senior official at the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency.

The geography is the point. More than 5,200 customers bought labels for the American postal network; the supplier worked from a town in eastern Punjab. The packages moved; the payments behind the labels never reached the Postal Service. It remains unclear whether Akram will be extradited to the United States or face trial in Pakistan.