0:00 by now you've probably heard about honey
0:02 you know the browser extension that
0:05 saves you money do you have honey
0:07 installed what's honey oh no no no honey
0:09 honey is a free browser extension free
0:12 browser extension free browser extension
0:14 free browser extension that
0:15 automatically applies coupon codes when
0:17 you check out online free money
0:19 basically it's literally free money it
0:21 doesn't make sense to not be using this
0:22 so what's the cat there is no kid join
0:24 honey join honey join honey honey honey
0:26 honey honey honeyone honey honey honey
0:28 honey honey hone honey honey honey honey
0:31 Jo
0:32 Honey yeah I hate to break it to you but
0:34 your favorite influencers sold you a lie
0:37 honey is a scam and the majority of
0:39 claims promoted by those influencers
0:41 aren't even remotely true but it gets
0:43 worse honey hasn't just been scamming
0:44 you the consumer they've also been
0:46 stealing money from influencers
0:48 including the very ones they paid to
0:50 promote their product and I'm not just
0:52 talking about a few bucks here I believe
0:54 the scam has likely cost content
0:56 creators millions of dollars sound crazy
0:59 well I didn't believe it at first either
1:01 until I experienced it myself firsthand
1:04 in fact I'm confident this might just be
1:06 the biggest influencer scam of all time
1:09 which is insane considering honey is
1:11 owned and run by PayPal who purchased
1:14 this company for four billion this
1:17 three-part series is the result of a
1:19 multi-year investigation where I believe
1:21 I've uncovered signs of advertising
1:22 fraud affiliate fraud the illegal
1:24 collection of personal data deception
1:26 lies coercion extortion the list goes on
1:30 I've reviewed hundreds of documents
1:31 adverts sponsorships I've reviewed
1:33 emails between honey and Merchants
1:35 interviewed victims believe me this runs
1:38 deep now I want to be clear the views
1:41 allegations and conclusions expressed in
1:42 the series are my opinions based on
1:44 evidence I have gathered which will be
1:46 shared throughout with that said ladies
1:48 and gentlemen this is the Honey Trap
1:54 [Music]
2:01 now I know what you're thinking it's a
2:03 free browser extension how bad could it
2:05 be well trust me it's far more Sinister
2:07 than you might think you know what they
2:09 say if a product's free it's likely
2:11 you're the product and as you'll find
2:12 out later in this investigation that
2:14 remains true for payal honey now like
2:17 most people I too fell for the lies I
2:19 mean what's not to love about a free
2:21 browser extension that saves you money
2:23 it's a compelling product and with the
2:25 endorsement from what feels like every
2:27 single popular influencer on YouTube
2:29 it's no wonder millions of people
2:31 downloaded it ironically the very
2:33 influencers promoting honey seemingly
2:35 had no idea the company was quietly
2:38 picking money out of their very own
2:40 Pockets well at least one of them
2:42 realized but we'll get to that later so
2:45 let me show you how Honey's been
2:46 stealing money from influencers so let's
2:49 say you're watching a video on YouTube
2:51 if you're into Tech like me maybe you're
2:52 watching a lonus tich tips video lus
2:55 tells you about this free browser
2:56 extension that saves you money online
2:58 you install it in two clicks and boom
3:00 you have honey perfect timing because it
3:02 just so happens you're looking to buy a
3:03 new CPU for your computer you come
3:06 across another Linus Tech tips video and
3:08 after watching you're convinced you
3:09 should buy the one recommended in this
3:11 video so you scroll down and find
3:13 Linus's affiliate link to that product
3:16 now for those of you who don't know when
3:17 you click an affiliate link and buy
3:19 something The influencer Who promoted
3:21 the product earns a commission for
3:23 referring you to that store so you add
3:25 the product to your cart get to the
3:26 checkout page and hello honey says they
3:29 found you1 coupon codes sweet you click
3:32 apply discounts and honey gets to work
3:34 but unfortunately none of the coupon
3:37 codes work doesn't matter though because
3:39 as honey has promised us for years that
3:41 means we know we've got the best deal so
3:43 you complete your purchase you're happy
3:45 your new CPUs on the way lonus is happy
3:48 he's getting his commission everyone's
3:50 happy right well let's quickly rewind
3:53 and see what was happening behind the
3:55 scenes you see after clicking Linus's
3:58 affiliate link you'll notice in the Eur
3:59 L there's a tracking tag labeled short
4:02 circuit that's a reference to one of
4:04 Linus's YouTube channels and this
4:05 tracking tag is how new knows who to pay
4:08 a commission to we can also see that
4:10 this tracking tag has been saved on my
4:12 browser in the form of a cookie that
4:14 will expire in 30 days that way if we
4:17 only decide to complete the purchase a
4:18 few days later lonus will still be
4:20 credited the sale it's kind of like when
4:22 you're at a department store buying a TV
4:24 and the salesman who helped you gives
4:26 you a referral card or a receipt with
4:28 their name on it so when you eventually
4:30 get to the checkout counter the clerk
4:31 knows which salesman to award the sale
4:34 to you can think of affiliate cookies as
4:36 a digital version of that so what
4:38 happened when we got to the checkout
4:39 page well once honey popped up what what
4:42 happened to Linus's affiliate cookie
4:44 after we clicked apply
4:47 discounts you see that honey K Min
4:50 removed Linus's affiliate cookie and
4:52 replaced it with their own claiming
4:54 credit for the sale and pocketing the
4:56 commission money for themselves
5:00 yeah now if we quickly go back again we
5:03 can see what's causing this to happen
5:05 after clicking apply discounts what
5:07 you'll notice is that in the top left
5:09 corner of your browser honey discreetly
5:11 opens a small new tab which acts like a
5:14 simulated referral click as if they were
5:16 the ones to refer you to the website
5:18 even though you're already on the
5:19 website and at the checkout page once
5:22 that page has finished loading and has
5:23 stuffed PayPal's affiliate cookie the
5:25 tab automatically closes leaving you
5:28 blissfully unaware that anything ever
5:30 happened it's very sneaky now when I
5:33 first discovered this was happening I
5:35 thought there's no way why would all
5:37 these high profile influencers be
5:39 promoting a company that is actively
5:40 poaching their affiliate commissions it
5:42 didn't make any sense so to make sure I
5:44 wasn't going crazy I went on a honey
5:46 testing spree clicking one affiliate
5:48 link after another and it kept happening
5:52 but even after all those tests I scoured
5:54 the internet to see if anyone was
5:56 talking about this and found nothing
5:59 okay there was is one debate about it on
6:00 the Y combinator Forum but nothing
6:03 concrete besides that virtually nobody
6:05 was talking about this adding fuel to my
6:07 doubt so I figured screw it I'll reach
6:09 out to honey and ask them directly and
6:11 sure enough they came back to me with
6:13 the following if honey is activated and
6:16 is the last program used while shopping
6:17 on a site it is likely honey will
6:20 receive credit for the purchase I was
6:22 right and just like that my
6:23 investigation into honey began now some
6:26 might consider what PayPal's doing here
6:28 dirty or highly une
6:30 but personally I can't see how it's
6:32 anything short of fraud I mean just
6:34 imagine something like this happening in
6:36 a real world scenario let's say you're
6:38 at a department store looking to buy a
6:40 new TV a Salesman spends time running
6:42 you through your options you decide to
6:44 buy he gives you his referral card you
6:47 get to the checkout and right as you're
6:49 about to pay a sleazy salesman pops up
6:51 going hey should I check if I have any
6:53 coupon codes for you naturally you say
6:55 sure he snatches your referral card
6:57 without you ever noticing looks for
6:59 coupons says sorry no luck this time but
7:02 instead of handing back the original
7:04 referral card he hands back his own
7:07 PayPal didn't refer the customer to the
7:08 store they didn't promote any of the
7:10 products the salesman did that PayPal
7:12 provided absolutely zero value to the
7:14 customer yet they were rewarded for the
7:16 sale but because this is all happening
7:18 online buried behind clicks and cookies
7:20 and tracking data there's little to no
7:23 transparency that this is ever happening
7:26 okay but what if honey had found a
7:28 working coupon code would that that make
7:29 it okay for them to claim the commission
7:32 honestly no I don't think so the fact
7:34 remains that honey didn't refer the
7:36 customer to the store nor did they
7:38 promote the product look don't get me
7:40 wrong I'm a consumer myself saving money
7:42 matters especially when money's tied but
7:44 this scam doesn't just affect wealthy
7:46 influencers there are hundreds of
7:47 thousands of small creators bloggers
7:50 artists who rely on affiliate
7:51 commissions to support their craft sure
7:54 you could argue that honey may have
7:55 convinced the consumer to complete the
7:56 purchase by providing a discount but
7:59 let's be real if you're already at the
8:00 check out with your items in your cart
8:02 you already have a high intent to
8:04 purchase and again this would never fly
8:06 in a real life sales environment no
8:08 department store is going to allow a
8:10 Salesman to hang out at the checkout
8:12 counter casually handing out coupon
8:14 codes while simultaneously stealing
8:16 commissions from the other sales reps so
8:19 why are we allowing a corporate giant
8:20 like PayPal to do it on the internet now
8:23 believe it or not this first example I
8:25 just showed you with lonus is just one
8:27 of three scenarios in which honey po is
8:29 affiliate commissions and the next
8:30 scenarios are even worse but before I
8:33 show you how bad scenario 2 is it's
8:35 important you understand the fundamental
8:37 system honey is exploiting you see in
8:40 affiliate marketing there's this thing
8:41 called last click attribution which
8:44 basically means last click wins for
8:46 example you might click on a shoe
8:47 blogger's affiliate link for a pair of
8:49 Nikes but you don't buy right away later
8:52 you click on a YouTuber's link for the
8:54 same shoes and complete the purchase in
8:56 this scenario the YouTuber gets the
8:58 commission and the Blogger gets nothing
9:00 there are other models like first click
9:02 where the Blogger would win the
9:03 commission or dynamic click where the
9:06 commission is shared but the industry
9:08 went with last click because while it's
9:10 not always the fairest it's the easiest
9:12 to implement therefore it became the
9:15 industry standard now when it's blogger
9:17 versus YouTuber for a sale honestly I'd
9:20 say last click is usually fair but when
9:22 it's anyone versus honey there's no real
9:25 competition honey pops up right at the
9:27 end of your purchasing Journey virtu
9:29 guaranteeing they'll win that last click
9:32 they of course know this and do anything
9:34 they can to get that last click even
9:37 when there's no coupon codes to offer
9:39 which brings us to scenario 2 honey gold
9:42 which is now called PayPal rewards
9:44 here's how it works when you get to the
9:46 checkout and honey gold is available
9:48 honey pops up and is essentially saying
9:50 hey you consumer click this button here
9:52 so payal can claim the commission for
9:54 the sale and we'll share a portion of
9:56 that commission money with you in the
9:58 form of points
10:00 it's basically a lame cashback game and
10:02 it's genius because if there are no
10:03 coupons to offer but the store is
10:05 participating in honey gold it gives
10:07 honey another reason to get that last
10:10 click how can YouTubers bloggers or any
10:13 other type of affiliate fairely compete
10:15 against this type of mechanism of course
10:17 the consumer is going to click and of
10:19 course they're going to win the sale now
10:21 this got me thinking how much of their
10:23 commission are they actually sharing
10:24 with users well to find out I decided to
10:27 put honey gold to the test so I look for
10:29 any website where honey gold was offered
10:31 and found it on nordvpn and know this is
10:34 not a sneaky sponsorship so I signed up
10:36 for nordvpn's affiliate program which
10:38 offers 40% Commission on successful
10:40 referrals after getting approved into
10:42 the program I received a custom
10:44 affiliate link for my YouTube channel
10:46 using this link I made two separate
10:48 purchases for the first I activated
10:50 honey gold and sure enough you can see
10:53 my affiliate cookie was replaced with
10:54 Honeys and for the second I didn't
10:57 activate honey gold as expected I was
10:59 awarded a $35 commission for the sale
11:02 where honey gold wasn't activated and
11:04 received nothing when honey gold was
11:07 activated for the first time I
11:09 experienced honey poaching my own
11:11 affiliate commission so how much of my
11:13 stolen $35 commission did PayPal sharers
11:16 cash back with my honey account aka the
11:19 consumer brace yourselves 89 points
11:23 which is equivalent to 89 cents USD
11:27 that's right honey poached a $35
11:30 commission for doing nothing and
11:32 rewarded me a grand total of
11:35 $89 thanks PayPal you really shouldn't
11:38 have no seriously you really shouldn't
11:41 have now on to scenario 3 for you ladies
11:44 out there let's say you're looking for a
11:46 new outfit your favorite influencer
11:47 tries on something that slays you click
11:49 on their affiliate link and get to the
11:51 checkout but in this scenario honey
11:53 knows it has nothing to offer no coupon
11:55 codes no honey gold yet it still pops up
11:59 to announce absolutely nothing annoying
12:02 as [ __ ] naturally you click the got it
12:05 button to get rid of the Annoying
12:06 dancing coin and whoa what's that PayPal
12:09 takes the sale why because [ __ ] you Mary
12:13 that's
12:15 your but wait there's more my personal
12:18 favorite is when honey has nothing to
12:20 offer so pops up offering you to check
12:22 out with PayPal even though the option
12:24 is already available at the checkout
12:26 page and of course if you click the
12:28 checkout button
12:29 PayPal poaches the
12:32 sale classy as I was saying honey uses
12:35 any excuse possible to get that last
12:38 click from the user it's absolutely
12:41 disgusting I can't even begin to Fathom
12:44 how much money has been lost at the
12:45 hands of this browser extension imagine
12:47 being the influencers who promoted honey
12:49 telling your audience who by the way are
12:52 the most likely to use your affiliate
12:53 links to download an app that poaches
12:56 your affiliate sales it's crazy now to
12:59 to be clear not every influencer who
13:00 promoted honey engages in affiliate
13:02 marketing so those who don't are
13:04 obviously unaffected but did any of the
13:06 influencers who are engaging in
13:08 affiliate marketing ever catch on to
13:09 what Honey's been doing well it turns
13:12 out yes at least one of them did lus
13:14 Tech tips who have been promoting honey
13:16 since
13:17 2017 so here's how I found this out you
13:20 see one day I was browsing Linus's Forum
13:23 to see if anyone had raised the red flag
13:25 about honey and sure enough back in 2020
13:28 someone sounded the alarm but it was
13:30 ultimately ignored however in 2022 a
13:34 different user noticed that lmg were no
13:36 longer promoting honey and asked the
13:38 team if they had been dropped as a
13:39 sponsor to which one of less' employees
13:42 responded with we entered the
13:43 partnership with honey due to the way
13:45 their service interacted with affiliate
13:47 links essentially if someone clicked on
13:49 an affiliate link and then they used
13:50 honey and search for a deal honey will
13:53 override that tracking link even if they
13:55 don't find you a deal that didn't drive
13:57 with us so we ended the partnership okay
14:00 so they had no idea this was happening
14:02 and it took them several years to catch
14:03 on that's quite telling because we're
14:05 talking about a tech saavy YouTube
14:07 channel that's run by a very large team
14:10 the fact it took them several years to
14:11 figure this out in my opinion really
14:13 underscores the deceptive nature with
14:16 which honey operates if lus and his team
14:18 didn't know I can't imagine many other
14:20 influencers would have known either now
14:22 I have to say as a longtime viewer and
14:24 supporter of Linus's Channel I'm
14:26 incredibly disappointed they weren't
14:27 more public with this discuss
14:29 I get this specific issue doesn't
14:31 directly affect their viewers but surely
14:33 they must have realized the wider impact
14:35 this could be having on the creative
14:36 Community a community they're a part of
14:39 I think that matters and it's not as
14:40 though they only promoted honey once or
14:42 twice they did approximately 160
14:45 sponsored segments all of which remain
14:48 Live on YouTube those videos have
14:50 accumulated around 194 million views
14:53 according to my data that makes Linus's
14:56 company lmg the third largest promoter
14:58 of honey on YouTube so yeah in my
15:01 opinion they should have made more noise
15:03 about this but what's truly baffling to
15:05 me is that after lmg ended their
15:07 partnership with honey they then went
15:09 ahead and partnered with a company
15:10 called karma now a coupon browser
15:13 extension that literally engages in
15:16 similar Behavior now I did reach out to
15:19 almg about the situation and I'll be
15:21 honest their response was not to my
15:23 satisfaction they didn't address the
15:25 majority of my questions however they
15:27 did at least provide some important cont
15:29 text about their dealings with honey lmg
15:31 stated that as soon as these issues with
15:32 honey were brought to us we tried to
15:34 work with them to remedy them after a
15:36 few cause we were informed that they
15:38 weren't willing to change so we stopped
15:40 working with them across all channels so
15:42 let me get this straight one of Honey's
15:44 biggest promoters goes to them and says
15:47 hey can you please stop overriding our
15:48 affiliate links and honey effectively
15:50 goes n not happening assuming I've got
15:53 that correct and if true that just goes
15:55 to show what little regard honey has not
15:57 only for Content creators but also their
15:59 Partners now as for lmg's less than
16:02 ideal response I did press Linus's team
16:04 to address the rest of my questions but
16:07 never heard back from them but it's time
16:09 to shift gears because unfortunately
16:11 this scam runs much deeper than stolen
16:13 affiliate commissions it's time we talk
16:15 about how honey used these influences to
16:17 sell you a complete lie how they sold
16:19 you a product that was doing the
16:21 opposite of what they promised you see
16:23 as I was testing honey across different
16:25 stores I was encountering a reoccurring
16:27 issue when I reached the checkout page
16:30 honey would claim it couldn't find me
16:31 any coupon codes yet when I searched
16:33 manually I found working codes with
16:35 these and even when honey did find me a
16:37 code I was often able to find another
16:40 code of bit value kind of strange given
16:43 their claim that well thanks to Honey
16:45 manually searching for coupon codes is
16:47 now a thing of the past another Oddity
16:49 was that honey would often only find me
16:52 honey branded coupon codes such as honey
16:54 5 or honey 10 why would a store only
16:56 have honey branded coupon codes kind of
16:59 weird right but the biggest red flag was
17:01 that when I tried submitting the better
17:02 coupon codes I'd found honey wasn't
17:05 adding them to their database so why not
17:09 well eventually I figured out what was
17:11 going on it turns out that one of the
17:13 key benefits for stores partnering with
17:15 honey is that they are given full
17:17 control over which coupon codes go live
17:19 on the platform if any at all I
17:21 discovered this while listening to a
17:23 podcast produced by Honey which appears
17:25 to be aimed at attracting new businesses
17:27 to joining their platform in this
17:29 podcast an employee from the Australian
17:31 clothing store Princess Polly discusses
17:33 the benefits of partnering with honey
17:35 what would you say to any brand that is
17:37 considered working with honey but hasn't
17:39 yet I would say missing out on
17:41 converting customers like I said before
17:43 jet is super discount sey you can't
17:45 ignore the fact that they will hunt for
17:47 like discount codes and they might find
17:49 a better deal with honey you can also
17:51 control the discount code percentage
17:53 which means like they will potentially
17:55 find a higher discount code on the
17:56 internet it literally lets you control
17:59 like the customer Journey convert and
18:01 control like the discount code
18:03 percentage as well this is insane she's
18:06 basically saying honey is great for
18:08 businesses because it encourages users
18:10 not to bother hunting for coupon codes
18:12 and it allows businesses to control
18:15 which coupon codes are shared with
18:16 consumers now I was able to further
18:18 verify this on Honey's website
18:20 specifically the FAQ page for partners
18:23 which clearly states as a partner you
18:25 have control over the content hosted on
18:27 the honey platform so yes even if honey
18:30 knows of a coupon code that offers say
18:32 20% off but a partnering store tells him
18:35 hey only share 5% off coupon then that's
18:38 the only discount honey will apply to
18:40 your cart at the checkout page I mean
18:43 holy [ __ ] honey wasn't finding you the
18:45 best deals possible they were
18:46 intentionally withholding them from you
18:48 for their own financial gain this
18:51 completely invalidates Honey's core
18:53 value proposition to Consumers for years
18:56 they sold you the lie that they would
18:57 find you every working coupon code on
19:00 the internet and apply the best one to
19:02 your car but nope complete and utter lie
19:05 they have literally been feeding you
19:07 coupon codes that were approved by the
19:10 partner stores who were paying them and
19:12 can I just say the double messaging here
19:15 is hilarious because on one hand honey
19:17 has appealed to Consumers by promising
19:19 to find the best deals possible but on
19:21 the other hand they appeal to businesses
19:24 claiming that honey helps prevent
19:26 consumers from finding the best deals
19:29 it's absurd now when you think about it
19:31 this all makes complete sense I mean why
19:34 would any online business pay honey for
19:38 sharing their highest value coupon codes
19:40 with its 20 million users that's not an
19:43 appealing partnership whatsoever so to
19:46 make a partnership more attractive honey
19:48 told businesses hey if you partner with
19:51 us and pay us an affiliate commission
19:53 we'll let you control which discount
19:54 codes are shared on our platform and
19:57 we'll tell our cons
19:59 we scoured the internet and found them
20:01 the best deal possible everybody wins
20:04 just uh not the consumers or the
20:07 influencers with this discovery I
20:09 decided to do a thorough audit of
20:10 Honey's advertising campaigns and yikes
20:13 the ads the sponsorships everywhere you
20:15 look it's lie after lie I wouldn't be
20:18 surprised if this ends up going down as
20:20 one of the most aggressive Shameless
20:22 marketing scams of the century just look
20:25 at this insane list of videos that were
20:27 sponsored by honey according to my data
20:29 they sponsored almost 5,000 videos
20:32 across roughly 1,000 different YouTube
20:34 channels racking up an unbelievable 7.8
20:37 billion views it's crazy so now that we
20:40 have a clearer picture of how honey
20:42 operates let's reflect on some of their
20:44 claims honey will find every working
20:46 code on the internet and apply the best
20:49 one to your cart if honey can't find a
20:51 discount code for you then you can rest
20:53 assured there's not a single discount or
20:55 promo code on the Internet it's a free
20:57 browser extension that automatically
20:58 find find you the best promo code for
20:59 anything you purchase online you
21:00 literally don't spend money honey
21:02 searches the known internet for every
21:04 promo code ever used this means you
21:06 always get the best deals without even
21:07 trying what honey does is take money and
21:10 they put it in your pocket if there is
21:11 any way to save money on your purchase
21:13 they'll find it getting you the lowest
21:15 prices possible at checkout you are
21:17 always going to get the best deal no
21:19 matter where you're shopping Amazon eBay
21:21 Best Buy doesn't matter Honey's got your
21:23 butt covered if honey can't find a code
21:25 you have the best deal it really puts
21:27 into perspective
21:29 just how Shady this company is doesn't
21:31 it now believe it or not the bitter
21:33 Business Bureau launched an inquiry into
21:35 Honey's advertising claims but after
21:37 honey immediately discontinued the
21:38 claims for quote business reasons the
21:41 BBB decided to drop the
21:43 case honestly at this point in my
21:46 investigation I thought I'd seen the
21:47 worst of it I thought I understood the
21:49 full picture of Honey Shady business
21:51 model but here's the thing what I
21:53 haven't told you is that there were
21:55 instances where honey would actually
21:56 work really well Finding Me In
21:58 incredible discounts that seemed almost
22:00 too good to be true now it wasn't very
22:02 often but enough to confuse me and there
22:05 were even times when they weren't
22:06 poaching affiliate commissions by
22:08 claiming the credit for sales these
22:10 inconsistencies Bugg me it didn't add up
22:13 with everything else I had discovered it
22:16 was clear I was missing something well
22:18 once I finally figured out what that was
22:20 I uncovered an even darker side to
22:22 PayPal scam one that targeted an
22:25 entirely new victim
22:30 we started having problems where
22:33 customers would get in touch by our
22:35 support saying oh hey I just tried to
22:38 use this discount this 60% off coupon
22:40 and it doesn't work I'd be like dude
22:43 that is that is not your discount like
22:45 how did you get that and they'd be like
22:46 oh I I just showed up through the honey
22:48 extension yeah it cost us thousands and
22:52 I haven't even looked into how far back
22:54 it went the end of the day like we need
22:55 to make the numbers work and if honey is
22:57 going to steal temp % of your Revenue
22:59 all the time you're going to have to
23:00 raise prices at the end of the day and
23:02 it's it's just like a really awful
23:04 business model if we've been so mad at
23:05 them for so long
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