Popular Honey extension caught scamming users and YouTubers

PayPal Honey is a highly Popular browser extensions Users are promised the best prices when shopping online. Before you check out, the tool scans the web for applicable coupon codes and, in theory, presents them all to you. Sounds too good to be true, right? That’s because it is. A new investigation reveals how the Honey extension actually worked, apparently defrauding both the creators who promoted the extension and the customers who relied on its discounts.

YouTube channel MegaLag has investigated How PayPal Honey works behind the scenes and exposes its malicious activities that choose to harm everyone involved. Many well-known YouTubers, bloggers, and other creators have been promoting the browser extension on their platforms for years. Little did they know that Honey had been stealing their alliance revenue.

When a customer asks Honey to search for coupons during checkout, the service silently deletes existing affiliate cookies and injects its own. This predatory behavior allows PayPal Inc. to steal commissions—even though creators actually direct users to selected products. In short, YouTubers have been promoting a tool to steal information from them.

Honey’s influence isn’t limited to creators. This service may also adversely affect you, the user. While the extension promises to find the best deals on the web, sometimes it intentionally hides them from you. When merchants sign up for Honey’s (trivial) cash back program, they have full control over the coupons offered by the extension. This allows sellers to hide better discounts shared publicly online from Honey users.

Due to blind trust, many customers won’t bother searching the web because they trust Honey to deliver honest results. As a result, they end up missing out on the most beneficial promotions shared elsewhere because they opt for secondary promotions offered by deceptive extensions.