Pakistan arrests man wanted by US over $126m postage fraud case

Pakistan's cybercrime agency has arrested a man accused of running a counterfeit operation that caused $126 million (£94m) in losses to the US Postal service.

Faheem Akram is accused of having sold fake stamps via a fraudulent website in the US since 2023.

He was indicted by a federal grand jury in Florida last month for selling more than five million counterfeit shipping labels to thousands of US customers over the years. Authorities have now shut down the website.

Earlier this month, the US Postal Inspection Service offered a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to his arrest.

According to the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida, the 33-year-old from Khanewal, Pakistan, operated LabelsBank.com.

US prosecutors alleged that he sold counterfeit US postage at a fixed rate regardless of a package's weight, size or destination.

The counterfeit labels, usually sold at $2 each, allegedly allowed customers to ship packages at rates far below legitimate prices, resulting in substantial lost revenue and shipping costs to the Postal Service.

An investigation found that more than 5,200 individuals purchased more than 5.1 million counterfeit shipping labels, the office said in a press release.

Akram is charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States 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 convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison on the conspiracy and counterfeit postage counts, and 20 years in prison on each wire fraud count, the office said.