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Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam [video]

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Re: Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam [video]

#21

Post by xyst »

matlo wrote: post #8

This was really wild to watch. Honey is so masterfully crafted to be deceiving. I had it installed years ago, and it intuitively felt like something was scammy, so I uninstalled it. Really incredible work by MegaLag. It seems to be a wholesome trend among creators like Coffeezilla, etc. I hope more of this rot will surface.

I am more impressed by the thoroughness of this IJ report than Honey’s browser extension which just re-writes affiliate cookies.

Honey is a parasite stealing from other parasites.

Re: Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam [video]

#23

Post by theZilber »

darthwalsh wrote: post #15
mandmandam wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it doesn't surprise me at all that they are inserting own affiliate links. I bet it surprises everyone who had their affiliate links quietly swapped out. > Would I call this scam? No, I wouldn't. Then your definition of 'scam' needs work. While we might expect PayPal's Honey to scam people like this, and be less than surprised that they would screw people over in this way, that doesn't mean this doesn't have every…

Sure, it was a scam, but we weren't the victims. I won't shed a tear for the marketing departments they were defrauding. I do feel bad for the small YouTube channels who lost affiliate revenue, though.

You are also a victim if you assume they provide you the best coupons available.

Re: Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam [video]

#27

Post by Rapzid »

That's wild. So they just take the affiliate commission for everything when installed?

A lot of people purchase things through affiliate links to knowingly support the affiliate.. But if they have Honey installed it just "steals" the referral..

Re: Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam [video]

#28

Post by bdowling »

xyst wrote: post #22
sgerenser wrote: post #4

I love how the only historical discussion on the topic he found was a HN discussion from 2019 where at least one person was confidently claiming they don’t steal affiliate commissions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21589273

[flagged]

https://xkcd.com/386/

Re: Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam [video]

#29

Post by sgerenser »

Dotnaught wrote: post #26

Concerns about Honey were raised four years ago by Wladimir Palant: https://palant.info/2020/10/28/what-would-you-risk-for-free-...

These are pretty serious privacy concerns, and underscores why the Honey extension is bad for users. However, I'd say these concerns are almost orthogonal from those raised in the original article, which listed concerns mostly to the other side of the transaction (the retailers, marketers, and YouTube influencers). So basically, it's just garbage from every direction.

Re: Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam [video]

#30

Post by alkatales »

the4anoni wrote: post #10

For me It was somehow obvious "they need to make money on something", and it doesn't surprise me at all that they are inserting own affiliate links. Would I call this scam? No, I wouldn't. Firstly I thought they started to genuinely deploy malware or some crypto-coin miner.

yeah I think they can argue that using honey (even if there's no discount) means it's the last thing you interacted with that influenced your decision. With wording like "There's no discounts so you can be confident you got the best price".
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