Honey Extension Influencer Scam

Overview

Honey Extension Influencer Scam or Honey Stealing Referral Codes Controversy refers to allegations made against the PayPal owned browser extension Honey that promises to provide users with discount and referral codes to e-commerce sites. In December 2024, YouTuber MegaLag posted a video titled "Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam" in which he alleged that Honey was stealing and replacing affiliate commissions to make a profit.

Background

On December 21st, 2024, YouTuber MegaLagOfficial made a series of posts on X^[2] / Twitter announcing his video "Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam," which received over 3.9 million views and 35,000 likes in two days.

Later on December 21st, YouTuber^[1] MegaLagOfficial posted a video in which he attempted to expose Honey, a browser extension that claims to gather coupons and discounts for users to apply to e-commerce sites. The video showed how the Honey extension allegedly replaces an influencer's affiliate link with their own, effectively taking away their commission. The video gathered over 3 million plays in two days.

The YouTuber posted the relevant clip from his video to his X^[3] account that same day, gathering over 29,000 likes in two days.

Here's how PayPal</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/honey?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">honey has been stealing money from influencers: pic.twitter.com/MUIxQDnsMP

— MegaLag (@MegaLagOfficial) December 22, 2024

Several Redditors reposted the video on December 21st, 2024, with Redditor /u/Photo-Josh gathering over 5,000 upvotes on a post to the subreddit /r/videos^[4] and Redditor /u/an_0w1 gathering over 6,000 upvotes in a post to /r/pcmasterrace,^[5] each within two days.

Online Reactions

On December 22nd, 2024, Redditor^[6] /u/Craztnine reposted a clip of YouTuber Markiplier from 2020 in which he expressed his suspicions about Honey and how much they spend on advertising on YouTube specifically.

X^[7] user @ForTheWinTCG also reposted the same video to X on December 22nd, gathering over 40,000 likes in a day. Markiplier^[8] quoted the post later that day, writing, "I KNEW IT," and gathering over 120,000 likes in a day.

Markiplier was right about Honey all along pic.twitter.com/kijvSvvpKq

— Sean (@ForTheWinTCG) December 22, 2024

YouTuber Coffeezilla notably reposted the video to X^[9] on December 22d, gathering over 29,000 likes in a day.

Search Interest

External References