Court grants NCCIA four-day physical remand of suspect in counterfeit US postage stamp scam

LAHORE: A judicial magistrate on Friday granted the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) a further four-day physical remand of the prime suspect in a Rs35 billion fraud involving the online sale of counterfeit US postage stamps . The NCCIA produced suspect Faheem Akram and his co-suspect, Naeem, before the court after their previous four-day remand expired. The investigating officer (IO) sought further custody of the suspects for interrogation. Magistrate Naeem Wattoo granted the agency’s request and extended the physical remand of both suspects by four days. The IO was directed to produce the suspects again on Nov 3. The initial investigation revealed that the suspect had allegedly been operating a website since August 2023 through which he sold more than five million counterfeit US postage labels online.

According to the US Department of Justice, Akram was indicted by a federal grand jury in Florida in September 2026 over the alleged sale of more than 5. 1 million counterfeit postage labels, which prosecutors say caused losses of more than $126 million to the US Postal Service. US prosecutors allege that the website sold the labels for around $2 each, regardless of the weight, size or destination of a package. A US court order authorised the seizure and shutdown of the website. The NCCIA had arrested the suspect, a resident of Khanewal, in Lahore. Money trail In a press conference on Oct 20, NCCIA’s Lahore Zone Additional Director Atif Ameer said that 16 bank accounts had been used in the scam. Seven of the accounts were operated by the suspect, five by his brother, two by his wife, and one each by his sister and aunt. He said the agency had expanded the investigation across several parts of the country. “Eight special teams were formed in Punjab,…