{"id":850104,"date":"2025-05-21T19:11:49","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T00:11:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/21\/scammers-are-already-capitalizing-on-confusion-over-tariffs\/"},"modified":"2025-05-21T19:11:49","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T00:11:49","slug":"scammers-are-already-capitalizing-on-confusion-over-tariffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/21\/scammers-are-already-capitalizing-on-confusion-over-tariffs\/","title":{"rendered":"Scammers Are Already Capitalizing on Confusion Over Tariffs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If you\u2019re like most people, you probably didn\u2019t think a whole lot about tariffs<\/a> before this year. And if you\u2019re like most people, you\u2019ve probably spent this year thinking a lot<\/em> about tariffs\u2014specifically, how they\u2019re going to impact your life. Whether it\u2019s worry over higher prices and empty store shelves or more generalized economic anxiety<\/a>, these certainly are exciting times. And, like clockwork, we can add one more thing to worry about in relation to tariffs: Scams.<\/p>\n

Pivoting off the chaos and uncertainty everyone is experiencing around the on-again, off-again tariffs and their constantly shifting parameters, scammers have quickly assembled a few new attacks on your bank account. They count on the fact that most of us aren\u2019t economists or experienced with import\/export law, so it can be easy to frighten or intimidate us into forking over money, especially because the one thing most of us know about tariffs is that they\u2019re going to cost us money. Here are the tariff scams you need to be on alert for\u2014and how to spot them.<\/p>\n

Fake government emails<\/h2>\n

One new scam attempts to leverage people\u2019s unfamiliarity with tariffs by posing as government agencies seeking tariff payments directly from consumers. Several hundred websites have been created since the beginning of the year, many with deceptive names including terms like \u201cU.S. Customs\u201d or \u201cTariffs\u201d in hopes of convincing you they\u2019re legitimate organs of the government<\/a>. The scammers then send out emails from those official-looking domains claiming that you owe a tariff payment for something you bought recently, or that you owe a general tariff payment.<\/p>\n

Sometimes the scammer\u2019s goal is to get you to make a payment, but often it\u2019s just to collect your information via an official-looking form.<\/p>\n

How to spot it: <\/strong>First, always keep in mind that consumers don\u2019t pay tariffs directly\u2014if the costs are passed on to you, it\u2019s through higher prices. Any request for a direct tariff payment is almost certainly a scam. Any official government website will have a \u201c.gov\u201d extension<\/a>, so you should be suspicious of any \u201c.com\u201d or \u201c.net\u201d sites claiming to be associated with the government. You can also use what\u2019s known as a WHOIS lookup<\/a> to see when a web domain was registered. Any site created within the last few months should be considered extremely suspicious.<\/p>\n

Fake messages about mail and packages<\/h2>\n

Another way scammers will try to leverage tariff confusion against you is by pretending to be a major shipping company like FedEx or UPS. They\u2019ll send you an email claiming that you have a package<\/a> being held because a tariff is owed, and direct you to a scam sight to pay to have the package released. This is a twist on an old scam, but uncertainty over who owes tariffs gives it a fresh sheen of legitimacy. <\/p>\n

How to spot it: <\/strong>Simply reminding yourself that you should never pay a tariff directly is key\u2014any request from a shipping company or the United States Post Office<\/a> for a tariff-related fee is a scam, full stop. If you actually have packages coming and you\u2019re at all uncertain of their status, always verify details separately by going to the shipper\u2019s main website and entering tracking information there, or contacting their customer service.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a consumer on a budget\u2014and who isn\u2019t these days\u2014you might be excited to stumble on a social media post or email purporting to sell you stuff directly from factories in China or other countries without a tariff. They claim<\/a> that the stuff is the same as name-brand clothing or other items, just without the branding, making them cheaper to offset any tariff-driven price increases. These sites are often pushed by so-called influencers on platforms like TikTok<\/a>, who gush about avoiding tariff fees.<\/p>\n

Of course, once you receive your items\u2014assuming you actually do\u2014they\u2019re almost certainly counterfeit<\/a> and probably pretty crappy in terms of quality. And you won\u2019t have the benefit of the brand\u2019s customer service to fall back on, either.<\/p>\n

How to spot it: <\/strong>Anyone claiming they can circumvent tariffs is probably lying to you, and the old rule about things being too good to be true (i.e., they probably aren\u2019t) always applies. If you see a post or video purporting to show a foreign factory selling items directly to consumers, it\u2019s almost certainly a scam.<\/p>\n

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\n What do you think so far?<\/p>\n

<\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Fake tariff relief payments<\/h2>\n

All this talk of skyrocketing prices has made everyone understandably nervous about paying their bills. This has led to a version of a scam that\u2019s been popular ever since the pandemic stimulus checks went out: Fake relief payments.<\/p>\n

Advertisements are showing up on social media claiming that there are various \u201ctariff relief\u201d payments going out, offering anywhere from $750 to $5,600. These are supposedly government programs to help us all survive the new reality of tariffs, and in the wake of previous government bailouts and stimulus payments they can seem plausible at first glance. Of course, if you click on any of these ads you\u2019ll find yourself at a phishing site demanding every bit of sensitive information the scammers can think of.<\/p>\n

How to spot it: <\/strong>Since these usually pop up in the form of paid ads on platforms like Facebook, they will usually be marked as \u201csponsored\u201d in some way\u2014if you see an indication that it\u2019s a paid ad, ignore it. If the government were to send out some sort of tariff-related stimulus, it wouldn\u2019t require you to fill out forms\u2014like previous stimulus payments, it would rely on the reams of data it already has on you thanks to the IRS. And a tariff stimulus would be in the news. A lot. If you\u2019re tempted to believe something like this, look for headlines on legitimate news sites\u2014if you don\u2019t see any, assume it\u2019s a scam.<\/p>\n

Investment scams<\/h2>\n

Scammers are always trying to play off two things: Fear and greed. While there have always been investment scams involving fake accounts or dubious cryptocurrencies, the newest versions of these scams play on everyone\u2019s fear of economic turmoil, claiming that a new investment product\u2014typically in the cryptocurrency sphere\u2014offers a risk-free safe haven from tariff chaos. While economies and national currencies might falter as trade wars escalate, the pitch goes, this nifty new version of money is unaffected by tariffs or other traditional economic factors and offers steady returns. Naturally, if you actually contact these sites and make an investment, your money simply vanishes, or you\u2019re pulled into a Pig Butchering scam<\/a> complete with a fake website showing you incredible returns on your investment that you will never actually be able to withdraw.<\/p>\n

How to spot it: <\/strong>The most obvious sign of a scam investment is an unrealistic rate of return. Any investment that \u201cguarantees\u201d no risk of loss and a huge profit in a short time is almost always a scam. If it involves a cryptocurrency you\u2019ve never heard of, you should definitely be suspicious. An increasingly common sign of a tariff-related crypto scam is a fake \u201cendorsement\u201d from a political figure\u2014a scam targeting nervous Canadian investors, for example, used fake testimonials from former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau<\/a> and other officials to fool people. Government officials typically don\u2019t endorse investments, and you should absolutely fact-check any you see without relying on links provided by the site itself.<\/p>\n

Jeff Somers
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re like most people, you probably didn\u2019t think a whole lot about tariffs before this year. And if you\u2019re like most people, you\u2019ve probably spent this year thinking a lot about tariffs\u2014specifically, how they\u2019re going to impact your life. Whether it\u2019s worry over higher prices and empty store shelves or more generalized economic anxiety<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":850105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1115,4131],"tags":[6466,112001],"class_list":["post-850104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-already","category-scammers","tag-already","tag-scammers"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}