Pakistan's cybercrime agency has arrested a man accused of running a counterfeit postage operation that cost the US Postal Service an estimated $126 million, authorities said, weeks after a federal grand jury in Florida indicted him and the US Postal Inspection Service offered a $100,000 reward for his capture.
Faheem Akram, 33, of Khanewal, Punjab, is accused of operating LabelsBank.com, a website that sold counterfeit US postage labels at a flat rate — typically $2 each — regardless of a package's actual weight, size or destination, letting customers ship at a fraction of legitimate prices. According to the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida, more than 5,200 people bought over 5.1 million counterfeit shipping labels through the site since 2023.
Akram faces one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and sell counterfeit postage, five counts of making and selling counterfeit postage stamp labels, and four counts of wire fraud. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison on the conspiracy and counterfeiting counts and up to 20 years on each wire fraud count.
An investigation found that more than 5,200 individuals purchased more than 5.1 million counterfeit shipping labels.
US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida
Authorities have shut down LabelsBank.com following the arrest. The case highlights how counterfeit-postage schemes have scaled up using ordinary e-commerce infrastructure, allowing a single website to inflict tens of millions of dollars in losses on a national postal system before investigators could trace it back to an individual operator overseas.
Pakistani and US authorities have not detailed how Akram was located after weeks as a wanted fugitive, though the $100,000 reward is likely to have factored into the tip that led investigators to him. He is now expected to face extradition proceedings as US prosecutors seek to bring him to Florida to face trial.