$126m Postage Fraud: Pakistan Arrests the Man Behind LabelsBank
October 21, 2026 · Frisian News
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Pakistan's NCCIA arrested Faheem Akram in Lahore on October 20 after a Florida grand jury indicted him for selling 5.1 million counterfeit USPS postage labels at $2 each, causing the Postal Service $126 million in losses.
$126 million. That is the figure the US Department of Justice says one man extracted from the US Postal Service by selling counterfeit shipping labels at a flat $2 each, regardless of a package's weight, size or destination.
Faheem Akram, 33, of Khanewal in Punjab province, operated LabelsBank.com from at least 2023, the DOJ says. More than 5,200 customers bought 5.1 million counterfeit USPS shipping labels through the site. A federal grand jury in Florida indicted him last month on one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, five counts of making and selling counterfeit postage labels, and four counts of wire fraud. The wire fraud counts each carry a maximum of 20 years in prison; the conspiracy and counterfeit postage counts carry up to five.
The economics of the alleged scheme were simple. Legitimate USPS rates scale with a package's weight, size and destination. Akram's labels did not. At $2 a label, buyers paid a fraction of what they owed; the Postal Service absorbed the rest. Across 5.1 million transactions, the DOJ says, the gap cost the Postal Service $126 million in lost revenue and shipping costs.
US prosecutors charged Akram before he was in custody. Earlier this month the US Postal Inspection Service offered a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to his arrest, the BBC reported. Pakistan's cybercrime agency, the NCCIA, traced him to Lahore using AI, call records and raids, and arrested him on October 20, according to sixty.pk. US law enforcement framed the charges; Pakistani authorities made the arrest.
Inspector in Charge Bladismir Rojo of the USPIS Miami Division said: "Our reach goes beyond our borders. Transnational criminal organisations defrauding the postal service and targeting US consumers by pushing phoney postage will be found and brought to justice," as reported by The Express Tribune. US Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida described the alleged operation as "simple but massive."
The charges are allegations and Akram is presumed innocent unless convicted. The official statements reported by the DOJ identify the scale of the alleged fraud but do not explain how the labels were technically produced or whether others remain under investigation.
The scheme ran for at least two years, across more than 5,200 individual buyers, before enforcement closed in. The LabelsBank.com domain has been seized under a court order and the site shut down.
Published October 21, 2026 · Frisian News