How 2 California Brothers Exploited Priority Mail For Their Elaborate $2.3 Million Scam
Two brothers from California recently admitted to pulling a trick on the United States Postal Service (USPS) that ended up giving them over $2.3 million. Their scheme was pretty straightforward: they made up stories to get insurance money for packages they sent through Priority Mail. This went on for nearly three years, from October 2016 to May 2019. In these three years, Anwer Fareed Alam, 35, and Yousofzay Fahim Alam, 31, managed to pull off this scheme over 22,000 times.
The scale of their scam was substantial, with the USPS disbursing a minimum of $2,367,033 in response to approximately 22,330 deceitful claims.
The Elaborate Scheme
Their scheme, although simple, was executed with meticulous planning. Anwer Alam would initiate the process by sending out packages through USPS Priority Mail, ensuring to purchase $100 insurance coverage for each parcel.
The insurance claim checks, resulting from their deceptive scheme, were sent to various addresses in Temecula, including the brothers' homes, their business addresses, and approximately 15 different PO boxes at two different post offices. Following the receipt of these checks, the brothers deposited the unlawfully obtained money into their bank accounts. The brothers utilized these PO Boxes as part of their plan. Anwer Alam would send out these packages, while Yousofzay Alam would then go online and make fake claims to get insurance money from USPS.
He'd say the packages were valuable and got lost or damaged during delivery. To make it seem real, Yousofzay Alam even attached fake invoices and pictures of various products that were not even in the packages. Not just this but they even went the extra mile by using fake names and business names to make it hard for anyone to figure out what they were up to.
The investigation found that every time USPS got one of their claim forms, they paid them up to $100 each time to cover what they said was lost or damaged, plus what they paid to ship it originally.
Once they got the checks, the brothers put the money into their bank accounts. Although their plan seemed quite straightforward, the Alams were very careful and organized. They knew exactly how to use USPS's insurance system to their advantage. Each time they made a false claim and got money from USPS, it helped them make even more money. So, every successful claim not only gave them cash but also made their scam bigger and more profitable.
Brothers Sentenced to Federal Prison
Despite being free on bond currently, the Alam brothers are slated for sentencing in November. US District Judge Wesley L Hsu has set a sentencing hearing for the Alam brothers on November 1, where they will officially be sentenced to federal prison for their fraudulent activities.
Each brother could potentially face a maximum legal sentence of 20 years in federal prison, as per the law. Neither of the brothers has any record of any previous felonies in the federal court system.