usps

1. September 28, 2026News9 receipts4 min

   Prosecutors say LabelsBank.com sold more than 5.1 million counterfeit Postal Service shipping labels to over 5,200 users, typically at $2 each whatever the package's weight, size or destination, for more than $126 million in alleged losses; under Postal Service rules, a package found carrying counterfeit postage is treated as abandoned.

   A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida has indicted Faheem Akram, 33, of Khanewal, Pakistan, on charges that he ran LabelsBank.com, a website that prosecutors say sold counterfeit U.S. postage at a fixed rate, typically $2 per label, regardless of a package's weight, size or destination. The Justice Department's September 28 release says over 5,200 individuals used the site to buy more than 5.1 million counterfeit shipping labels, causing more than $126 million in alleged losses to the Postal Service. By Hugin's arithmetic, that is roughly $25 of alleged loss per label. The site has been shut down and its domain seized. The charges are allegations, and the release does not say whether any buyer faces action; the Postal Inspection Service says buying or using counterfeit postage is illegal. For anyone who ships, the plainest risk is to the package: since May 7, 2023, Postal Service rules have treated mail found bearing counterfeit postage as abandoned, to be disposed of at the Postal Service's discretion. Under a temporary price change, genuine Priority Mail, Priority Mail Express, Ground Advantage and Parcel Select prices rise 6.0 percent on average from October 4 until January 17, 2027.

   Also filed undercounterfeit-postageindictmentfraudsmall-businessshippingconsumer-protection

2. September 17, 2026Commentary3 receipts4 min

   The Postal Service made its own deadline longer, made its own pass mark lower, and still missed. When an organization grades itself, 'missed the target' is a statement about two numbers, and only one of them is performance.

   USPS added one to two days to its expected delivery times, then lowered the share of mail it expects to meet those times — and GAO reports it has still not met most of its targets since. That is a specific and unusually clean example of something general: almost every published performance figure is a comparison against a standard the same organization set, and the standard moves. Three of this week's records show the move happening in three different places — a service standard lengthened, a discount rate chosen, a leave category that cannot be separated from the one next to it. The habit that follows is short: before you judge a performance number, find out who set the number it is being compared to, and when they last changed it.

   Also filed undermethodperformance-measurementgaostatistics

3. September 17, 2026News1 receipt3 min

   The Postal Service added one to two days to its own delivery standards, lowered the share of mail it expects to hit them, and has still missed most of its targets since.

   GAO's September 17 report on USPS service performance finds that the agency changed the measuring stick twice and still comes up short. Effective October 2021 USPS 'added 1 to 2 days to its expected delivery times for certain products' to move mail from air to ground. In April 2025 it changed expected delivery times again by ending end-of-day or afternoon collection at more than 24,000 post offices that sit more than 50 miles from a Regional Processing and Delivery Center. It also lowered its service performance targets in fiscal 2021 — the share of mail it expects to meet its own standards — and 'has not met most targets since then.' GAO reports the slowdown fell disproportionately on rural customers, and recommends USPS explain to Congress and the public what it will actually do about it.

   Also filed undergaoservice-standardspublic-servicesrural

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