19 February 2024 , 11:40
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Two brothers from California have admitted to tricking the United States Postal Service (USPS) out of more than $2.3million.
Anwer Fareed Alam, 35, and Yousofzay Fahim Alam, 31, from Temecula, made up insurance claims for Priority Mail packages. The pair carried on their sneaky activities for nearly three years from October 2016 to May 2019, making over 22,000 false claims.
They would send USPS Priority Mail packages, paying for $100 of insurance in case anything got lost or damaged. But the packages were either empty or filled with worthless items - and Anwer Alam would send them to made-up addresses.
Yousofzay Alam would then make fake insurance claims on the USPS website. He would lie about what was in the packages, saying they contained valuable items and then tell tales about the parcels being lost or damaged while being delivered.
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They would claim they had lost expensive things in the package (Getty Images)To make their claims seem real, Yousofzay Alam would include made-up invoices and photos of items that weren't actually in the packages.
The brothers even used fake names and pretended to be businesses to hide their illegal actions and make it harder to track down all the false insurance claims they made.
The United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General found that every time the USPS received a claim form from one of the brothers, they paid out compensation to cover their supposed losses of up to $100, along with the original shipping costs.
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Detail view of the USPS logo on a piece of priority mail packaging (Getty Images)The insurance claim cheques were sent to various addresses in Temecula, including the brothers' home and business addresses, as well as about 15 different post office boxes at two different post offices. The brothers then deposited their ill-gotten gains into their bank accounts.
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In one instance, in November 2018, the Alam brothers received a cheque for $106.59 from Priority Mail. The scam was so widespread that the USPS paid out at least $2,367,033 from around 22,330 claims.
The brothers, who are both free on bond, will be sentenced in November, with each facing a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. According to records, the men have no previous felony convictions in the federal court system.