U.S. postal inspectors shut down website selling counterfeit postage labels (postalemployeenetwork.com)

90 pointsby ilamont2 hours ago46 comments

zucked 2 hours ago

I am pretty sure I bought from a seller using this (or something similar) on eBay. It sent me down a rabbit hole of reading about this type of scam that exploded earlier this year: https://www.uspsoig.gov/sites/default/files/reports/2026-04/...

Here's how it went down:

https://www.ebay.com/fdbk/feedback_profile/theperfectpart

Note that they’ve sold so much that even 1k neutral ratings are barely registering - they have “100% positive feedback”

I bought a cheap tool from this seller on ebay. Tracking number was provided showing my town as the destination. About four days later, I get an unprompted ebay message from the seller: “I monitor all my shipments and sometimes there are problems so I’m proactively sending you a new one, here’s a new tracking number.”

The original tracking number showed a message I’d never seen before “Item seized - counterfeit postage”. The new tracking number showed postage that had been bought back in January, but never entered the mailstream. Huh. I suspect that buys them time while they re-ship.

I did eventually get the item after another tracking number was provided.

My suspicion is that the seller uses counterfit USPS postage on 'x' number of packages to juice their margins. If you look at the neutral reviews, you can see a pattern — slow postage, lost package, had to replace, blah blah. Look at the positives — rave reviews at how fast things are arriving. Probably because the seller is “paying” for higher end postage via scamming the USPS.

And only when they get caught by USPS do they need to re-ship an item. They must get away with it enough to make it worthwhile

landr0id an hour ago

Thanks for the links. I'm confused how this works and the USPS report seems to be heavily redacted around details.

I would assume that the tracking number has the address details tied to it (I mean, based on support claims with USPS it definitely does), but maybe there's some obscure package type where destination is not distinct and they abuse that in a pool with other sellers, then at the last mile it gets sorted appropriately?

Seems wild that this market even exists considering how USPS flat rate postage exists.

Was your package something heavy or extremely light which makes weight-based shipping more economical?

zucked an hour ago

The redaction is frustrating, but I suspect the approach is still at least partially viable, so they aren't interested in giving a playbook for scammers to exploit.

The tool I bought wasn't what you'd think of as a small, inconsequential item. I'd wager it was ~2lbs and was a automotive brake bleeder in a blowmolded case. Probably the size of an old-timey encyclopedia. Cheaply made of course (almost certainly an aliexpress item). The seller I bought from has what appears to be an aliexpress dropshipping supply chain -- they buy the tool for $, ship from a US warehouse in Florida for $$.

theturtletalks an hour ago

I’ve read about this. They basically reverse engineered how USPS creates the unique tracking number.

TemplarRush 30 minutes ago

They aren't hard to generate. They give you how to generate them via their own documentation. It's just made up of an app ID, service type code, mailer ID, serial number, and check digit.

what an hour ago

Why is that report so heavily redacted?

wbl an hour ago

Because the redacted bits tell you what the crooks are doing wrong.

zucked an hour ago

There was recently an update report published that gives a little bit more information but is still heavily redacted. I presume some of these vectors are still viable for exploit. https://www.uspsoig.gov/sites/default/files/reports/2026-09/...

neilv an hour ago

Related: Not US postage labels, but suspicious US postage stamps, seemed to also be used as a crude currency.

A third-party seller on Amazon or eBay was including sheets of suspicious US postage stamps in product shipments, unsolicited, with full-color glossy notes offering more stamps in exchange for positive reviews.

(I took the stamps and note I received to a post office, where a manager agreed they looked suspicious, and I asked them forward it up the chain. I like the USPS as a trustworthy service and institution, and I hate counterfeiting.)

xur17 39 minutes ago

What was the end result of this?

squirtle24 27 minutes ago

It might have to do with the fact that the First Class stamps exploded in price recently. It was $0.55 right before covid, but now it's $0.82. It's like printing counterfeit money, except easier. A 4x5 sheet the size of a postcard becomes worth $16. The stamps themselves have relatively little in the way of counterfeiting measures, especially if you consider that "Forever" stamps exist. So even if they introduce anti-counterfeiting measures into new stamps, a pirate could print old-style Forever stamps, circumventing the new measures.

The USPS is also, ahem, rather incompetent, and their own report [1] shows that "mitigation efforts are limited, with no substantive approach to identify counterfeit stamps in the Postal Service network. While the Postal Service and the Postal Inspection Service have increased prevention-related efforts, the quantity of counterfeit stamps in the network remains unknown."

So the increased value of the stamps, the inability to change old Forever stamps, and the lack of enforcement have created a perfect storm for the counterfeiters.

[1] https://www.uspsoig.gov/reports/audit-reports/counterfeit-st...

saghm 17 minutes ago

I thought that for a while now all stamps are "forever" rather than it being s separate type.

HarHarVeryFunny 2 hours ago

So the USPS delivered these packages?

There's no verification built into a USPS label?

stackskipton an hour ago

Possibly. Sometimes delivery companies find it easier to just deliver them attempting to return to sender and dealing with headache of customer complaints since while it should have been clear to people buying the labels that they were not legit, a lot of people would be like "HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW? I WANT MY MONEY BACK!"

Yes there is verification. Sometimes the label WAS valid but it was purchased with stolen credit card OR purchased then refunded after delivery to the client but before it entered the postal stream.

EDIT: Remember, boxes can be dropped off before someone processes them. Just hand them random postal carrier OR put them in postal pickup box.

roachman an hour ago

they are real labels, im fairly sure. but they are generated fraudulently, likely via stolen credentials on various shipping providers with USPS api

rafram an hour ago

They're completely counterfeit, not real but generated fraudulently. This article has an example: https://www.freightwaves.com/news/nullship-selling-counterfe...

zucked 40 minutes ago

This article has some inconsistencies with what I experienced. For example, my label absolutely had tracking before being intercepted. In fact, it made it all the way to my city's distribution center.

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/nullship-selling-counterfe...

Here's the trajectory. Note that the final status has updated to no longer say "counterfeit" it's now just "postage assessment".

----- Delayed for postage assessment, Item in transit to destination

August 13, 2026 5:44 AM

Departed USPS Facility

JERSEY CITY NJ DISTRIBUTION CENTER

August 11, 2026 2:08 PM

Delayed for postage assessment, held awaiting payment

August 10, 2026 9:21 PM

Arrived at USPS Facility

JERSEY CITY NJ DISTRIBUTION CENTER

August 10, 2026 4:53 PM

In Transit to Next Facility

August 10, 2026 6:24 AM

In Transit to Next Facility

August 9, 2026 7:13 PM

Departed USPS Facility

MYTOWN DISTRIBUTION CENTER

August 9, 2026 8:18 AM

Arrived at USPS Facility

MYTOWN DISTRIBUTION CENTER

August 9, 2026 1:28 AM

Departed USPS Facility

MYTOWN DISTRIBUTION CENTER

August 8, 2026 10:30 AM

Delayed for postage assessment, held awaiting payment

August 7, 2026 6:29 PM

In Transit to Next Facility

August 7, 2026 9:14 AM

Arrived at USPS Facility

MYTOWN DISTRIBUTION CENTER

August 7, 2026 7:17 AM

In Transit to Next Facility

August 6, 2026 7:04 AM

In Transit to Next Facility

August 5, 2026 5:53 PM

Departed USPS Facility

OPA LOCKA FL DISTRIBUTION CENTER

August 5, 2026 4:46 AM

Arrived at USPS Facility

OPA LOCKA FL DISTRIBUTION CENTER

August 4, 2026 2:33 PM

happyopossum an hour ago

If they were real labels the charge wouldn’t be Counterfeiting.

dawnerd 13 minutes ago

They can still be real tracking numbers, but faked labels. USPS used to let a lot slide but they've definitely gotten more aggressive with catching packages even slightly out of spec of what the label was for.

zucked an hour ago

This report alludes to (but IIRC stop short) of confirming that there is only validation at the designated ports of entry scans. https://www.uspsoig.gov/sites/default/files/reports/2026-04/...

My suspicion is that these labels are entering the mailstream somehow circumventing the "first" scan.

A_D_E_P_T 2 hours ago

It says that the perp is Pakistani, and that he's been charged, but not that he's been arrested -- so he's presumably still free in Pakistan.

I hear that normally what the FBI would try in such cases is to lure people onto US or extraditable territory. IIRC there were some rogue Chinese chemists, who owned companies that sold fentanyl intermediates and were under secret indictment in the US, who were "invited to a VIP academic conference in Hawaii" and then arrested as soon as their flight landed.

Seems clear that this Pakistani is a bit more circumspect.

1-6 29 minutes ago

Come to think of it, who knows how many counterfeit postage stamps are in circulation? https://mailtheft.uspis.gov/

swe_dima 44 minutes ago

UPS is also full of holes. No verifications whatsoever.

You can purchase a label from a reseller and then ship using that label to a different place at a different weight several times. Battled with this at a previous job.

giancarlostoro 2 hours ago

Not sure if I should be horrified or impressed. That's an insane amount of postage labels sold.

I wonder how many were returned to sender.

john_strinlai 2 hours ago

>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.

i would love more insight into how they come up with the number of charges. why five counts of making/selling counterfeit postage stamp labels instead of 1 charge that covers all 5 million, or 5 million charges, etc.

giancarlostoro 2 hours ago

Isn't it one count per distinct criminal act? I think they do it to keep things simple and sane. In some cases they'll drop some, or add more depending on how evidence grows and the case proceeds.

john_strinlai 2 hours ago

that was my understanding. i guess maybe they have evidence pointing to 5 distinct counterfeiting runs (of ~1MM stamps each) or something.

i know they like to throw more at the start for a better plea negotiation position, but 5 just seemed rather random here.

giancarlostoro 2 hours ago

I just looked it up, it has something to do with the ones they're most likely to prove, so maybe they deeply documented at least one or more purchases through the website to document as much as possible about the case? It's possible they could uncover more as they continue investigating. You do raise a good point though, it also depends on how many stamps customers bought.

kube-system an hour ago

As I understand, the feds don't bring charges until their evidence is really really solid. Federal prosecutors have more than a 95% conviction rate.

mikeryan 39 minutes ago

They probably distinguish between what they think and what they know. It could very well be they ran a “sting” and made a few transactions through the site and are only charging against those transactions to get extradition started while they assemble the larger case.

QGQBGdeZREunxLe 2 hours ago

This is labels not stamps correct? How is that even possible?

advisedwang 2 hours ago

These are full shipping labels

d3rockk an hour ago

roachman an hour ago

wrong

roachman an hour ago

I'm assuming, but im pretty sure sites like this operate by getting stolen credentials to third party shipping sites. think of all the sites like pirateship, shippo etc. if a companies account is hacked, they could create api credentials and just distribute a ton of requests across all the accounts. more accounts / larger orgs that get compromised = less chance of killing the beast

happyopossum an hour ago

> im pretty sure sites like this operate by getting stolen credentials to third party shipping sites

If that were the case the charges would be fraud and the victims would be the companies that paid for the postage. The charge of counterfeiting is pretty specific - if I steal a $100 bill from you and spend it I don’t get charged with using counterfeit money, I get charged with theft.

WhyComboNadir 2 hours ago

If the labels were honored by USPS (presuming they were coded, etc.) then everything I assume about how "well" government-related systems are coded is 100% true.

Obviously this doesn't excuse criminal behavior, but there should be some blushing faces at USPS.