alert Paypal Honey Scam

[silentg]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1870653502948819141

TLDW

Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam" by MegaLag:

The video is an investigative report on Honey, a browser extension that promises to save users money by automatically applying coupon codes at checkout. MegaLag alleges that Honey has been engaging in a multi-faceted scam, including:

• Stealing affiliate commissions from influencers: Honey replaces the affiliate links of influencers with its own, claiming credit for sales and pocketing the commissions. This is done through various tactics, such as overriding affiliate cookies and offering its own "Honey Gold" program, which incentivizes users to click through Honey instead of the original affiliate link.
• Deceiving consumers: Honey claims to find the best deals and apply the best coupon codes, but MegaLag alleges that Honey often withholds better deals and only applies coupon codes approved by the stores it partners with. This allows stores to control the discounts offered to consumers and potentially inflate prices.
• Engaging in deceptive advertising: Honey's marketing campaigns heavily emphasize its ability to find the best deals and save users money, but MegaLag argues that these claims are misleading and often untrue.

The video includes interviews with victims of the scam, as well as evidence from internal documents and Honey's own website. MegaLag concludes that Honey's business model is fundamentally flawed and that the company has been exploiting both consumers and influencers for years.

 

[JB Lions]

Reminds me of old school parasites, browser addons/plugins.

Besides this:
"Honey replaces the affiliate links of influencers with its own"

Merchants need to understand they also cannibalize the merchant's marketing.

Somebody signs up to a merchants newsletter and clicks a link, clicks an ad somewhere else, sees a commercial and types in the merchant directly, with these browser addons/extensions, they can swoop in and take the credit for the sale. So merchants are paying out commissions for traffic that they already paid for, their own marketing. That's always been stupid.

I used to get threatened back in the day for speaking out against this stuff, 2 companies literally sending people to my home threatening me with libel/criminal charges. These guys used to get a of threats as well:

https://www.benedelman.org/

https://affiliatefairplay.com/

 

[MrWesley]

I saw this but it's very old news for those with an understanding of cpa.

All the reward sites that give people back "Rebates" or reward point do this with cookie stuffing.

BHW got sued like a decade ago because they were doing this to forum users with Amazon.

 

[JB Lions]

I saw this but it's very old news for those with an understanding of cpa.

All the reward sites that give people back "Rebates" or reward point do this with cookie stuffing.

BHW got sued like a decade ago because they were doing this to forum users with Amazon.

And there was also the case of Digital Point getting sued by Ebay for cookie stuffing - https://casetext.com/case/ebay-inc-v-digital-point-solutions-1

https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2008/09/ebay_cracks_dow.htm

And in the past lots of cases of adware companies getting sued.

 

[Kyle Tully]

Yeah this is par for the course in the affiliate world. It’s only that it’s a company as big as PayPal involved that made news. And more news than normal as it’s the influencers who are affected.

 

[silentg]

YouTuber LegalEagle sues PayPal over ‘sleeping leech’ Honey extension​

https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/05/y...-sleeping-leech-honey-extension/?guccounter=1