Insane. This is just regular old theft. No different than an extension that mines bitcoin.
Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam [video]
41–50 of 95 posts
Re: Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam [video]
#42For 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.
I think that's surprising... why wouldn't you consider it a scam? Hell, even a malware? Honey does the following: - Stealing the commission from an affiliate link assigned to someone else - Cutting itself a commission by inserting an affiliate link, when there was none, essentially profiting off you without your consent. - Gives you the worst discount code possible, while saying it got you the best deal - Cheating th…
It’s effectively malware
Re: Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam [video]
#43This has me wondering if this could be cause for a class action lawsuit by influencers affiliated with Honey or by Consumers who installed the extension.
My guess any person who shared affiliate links have good grounds for being part in a lawsuit. Not only they did not receive any money from PayPal for promoting Honey they had their affiliates stolen.
Honey will likely try to cop out by claiming the affiliate only changes if the user clicks the button and thats intent.
Re: Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam [video]
#44I 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
That's not the only one, Linus website had the same discussion an the confirmation that it did happen and lead to an end of their partnership
Yes, true, I should have said the HN thread was “one of the few discussions” not “the only discussion.” HN discussion was much earlier than the LTT one though.
Re: Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam [video]
#45This has me wondering if this could be cause for a class action lawsuit by influencers affiliated with Honey or by Consumers who installed the extension.
My guess any person who shared affiliate links have good grounds for being part in a lawsuit. Not only they did not receive any money from PayPal for promoting Honey they had their affiliates stolen. Honey will likely try to cop out by claiming the affiliate only changes if the user clicks the button and thats intent.
I feel like they could maybe argue that when Honey is used and actually applies a coupon and saves the user money. But when they click the “OK” button to dismiss the pop-up that says “sorry, we didn’t find any coupons for you”, there’s absolutely no excuse for stealing the affiliate cookie.
Re: Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam [video]
#46These browser extensions/add-ons with shady monetization tactics have been around since the 90s. The fact that honey in particular has been around for so long and promoted by popular influencers just proves that there are behind the scenes negotiations taking place that is preventing them from being criminally prosecuted much less immediately banned from these affiliate programs.
Re: Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam [video]
#47I feel like this should be up to the affiliate networks to kick Honey out of their programs for TOS violations right? Or Google removing it from the Chrome store?
I feel like if I did this, I would be charged under the CFAA with at least 5 years prison time.
Yes well people get upset when antifa does anything
Re: Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam [video]
#48is there not an opensource alternative? i mean its webscraping which is very established surely it exists. anyways we should bring them traction if they too arent evil
Re: Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam [video]
#49How would you even build a better version of this geared towards consumers? I don’t see the incentives lining up unless you start charging for the service.
The consumer never gets the affiliate cut either way. If there are coupon codes, the consumer wins. If there aren't, the customer only loses a bit of privacy about what they're buying, which most people don't care about anyway.
Re: Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam [video]
#50This 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.
Proper old school investigative journalism, and he didn't hold back. Terrific scam, but, y'know, PayPal – I'm an old timer and remember the early days of that outfit. They're still blocked at the firewall from events 25 years ago.
Remember kids: Marketing is a psychopathy.