A judicial magistrate in Lahore on Wednesday gave the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) five days to question Faheem Akram, the main suspect in an alleged Rs35 billion fraud involving the online sale of counterfeit US postage labels, Dawn and Geo News reported.
Akram, 33, from Khanewal district in Punjab, has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Florida on charges of defrauding the United States Postal Service (USPS), according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, which announced the charges on September 28.
“The indictment alleges more than 5.1 million counterfeit labels and more than $126 million in losses,” US Attorney Jason A Reding Quiñones said at the time, Geo News reported.
The US charges
US authorities charged Akram 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.
- Four counts of wire fraud.
Dawn identified the suspect only by his age and home district. Geo News named him as Faheem Akram of Khanewal, the name that appears in US court records it cited.
In court
The suspect was produced before Judicial Magistrate Naeem Wattoo, where the NCCIA asked for 14 days of physical remand to interrogate him. The court partly accepted the request and granted five days.
The agency’s investigating officer told the court the suspect had allegedly been running a website, LabelsBank.com, since August 2023 and had used it to sell more than 5 million counterfeit postage labels.
How the scheme worked, according to US prosecutors
According to the US Department of Justice:
- The website was not authorised to sell USPS products or services.
- It sold labels for around $2 each, whatever the weight, size or destination of the package.
- The fake labels let customers ship parcels at rates “far below legitimate USPS prices”.
- The losses to the postal service exceeded $126 million.
A US court order authorised the seizure and shutdown of the website.
Eight teams, 16 bank accounts
The NCCIA’s Lahore zone announced the arrest at a press conference on Tuesday. Additional Director Atif Ameer said eight special teams had been formed in Punjab, Islamabad and Sindh to trace the suspect and investigate the wider network.
Investigators found that 16 bank accounts were allegedly used for the transactions, Geo News reported: seven belonging to the suspect, five to his brother, two to his wife, and one each to his sister and maternal aunt. The NCCIA says the website ran from August 2023 to September 2026.
A case, No 246/2026, has been registered and the investigation is continuing. The teams carried out 35 raids and questioned 47 people. Investigators also analysed 122 call data records, 50 IMEI tracking reports and footage from 120 cameras, using modern technology and artificial intelligence. A special operation to locate the suspect ran for 10 days before his arrest.
Rupee value
The Rs35 billion figure used in Pakistan is roughly the rupee equivalent of the $126 million in losses alleged by US prosecutors.
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