Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam

Jet-Fighter7700 said:
I watch quite a bit of YT, and sometimes think to myself all the BS they peddle, obviously none of it is meant for SA market, but everything from betterhelp, to other quacky things make me simply skip through the adverts, knowing they will shill for anything and everything,
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These services act like bouncers, doing hostile takeovers. It is ugly. Then they promote themselves as the good guys saving the consumer time and money. Some YouTubers were cheap and took the sponsorship deal, others knew what their time would be worth to Honey.

These same people will moan about cookie cleaners.
 
Speedster said:
I'd hardly call this a scam - it does exactly what it says on the box. Just because someone doesn't like it doesn't make it a scam.

I only wish they had coupons for ZA stores.
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Yeah the word “scam” is being used way too liberally lately.
 
It literally is a scam, how is it confusing?

They tell consumers to use it as it will find and use the best coupons available, giving the biggest discount.

Then they partner with stores and make an agreement whereby if you partner with them, they will always use the smallest coupon available for purchases from your store.

Both can’t be true, so someone is getting scammed.

Add to that they take the affiliates money when someone follows an affiliate link and then use Honey to apply codes, thereby robbing the affiliate of their money and pocketing it themselves.
 
How to f u ck AI and the scammers.Screenshot_20250104_003525_WhatsApp.jpg
 

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UrBaN963 said:
It literally is a scam, how is it confusing?

They tell consumers to use it as it will find and use the best coupons available, giving the biggest discount.

Then they partner with stores and make an agreement whereby if you partner with them, they will always use the smallest coupon available for purchases from your store.

Both can’t be true, so someone is getting scammed.

Add to that they take the affiliates money when someone follows an affiliate link and then use Honey to apply codes, thereby robbing the affiliate of their money and pocketing it themselves.
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There's no robbery - it's not like anyone had a right to the affiliate commission.

Also, the whole coupon thing astounds me. Coupons are issued (and honoured) by retailers. Surely it's only right for the retailer to manage their coupons? If honey doesn't give you the best coupon - use another coupon. The only thing honey is in the wrong about here is promising the best coupon available, when that doesn't seem to be the case.
 
Mirai said:
The creators are just as evil. Because they peddle BS. They promote things they themselves don't understand. And none of these guys are educated. They just started BS peddling channels. The thing is that this Honey thing shows that the emperor has no clothes. It caught them with their pants down.

Honey exposes them for being charlatans. How can you trust these people when they promote snake oil for money?

Luis Rossmann did a thing about them too.
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You cannot possibly know the inside outs of everything you het to peddle.
Especially not from the get go.
 
kolaval said:
You cannot possibly know the inside outs of everything you het to peddle.
Especially not from the get go.
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Then what sort of authority figures are they? Why do people respect their opinion if these are mere BS'ers?
If you're influenced by clueless people... is that good?
 
Mirai said:
Then what sort of authority figures are they? Why do people respect their opinion if these are mere BS'ers?
If you're influenced by clueless people... is that good?
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It's the modern way - we blindly follow whoever says something in the most entertaining/attractive way with no understanding or insight as to why they would say it.

Why else do you think anyone would vote for a Democrat?
 
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Speedster said:
There's no robbery - it's not like anyone had a right to the affiliate commission.

Also, the whole coupon thing astounds me. Coupons are issued (and honoured) by retailers. Surely it's only right for the retailer to manage their coupons? If honey doesn't give you the best coupon - use another coupon. The only thing honey is in the wrong about here is promising the best coupon available, when that doesn't seem to be the case.
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Of course they have a right to the commission.

The agreement is they endorse or speak about Honey on their platform (advertising) and in return they get sponsorship money. Why do you think affiliate links exist? It's a contractual agreement. So, yes, they have a legal right to the commission.
 
UrBaN963 said:
Of course they have a right to the commission.

The agreement is they endorse or speak about Honey on their platform (advertising) and in return they get sponsorship money. Why do you think affiliate links exist? It's a contractual agreement. So, yes, they have a legal right to the commission.
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They do get sponsorship money from honey yes. Why else would they promote Honey? The uproar isn't about honey money, it's about not getting affiliate commission on other products.

The whole industry works on last click, honey just found a clever way to be last.
 
UrBaN963 said:
Of course they have a right to the commission.

The agreement is they endorse or speak about Honey on their platform (advertising) and in return they get sponsorship money. Why do you think affiliate links exist? It's a contractual agreement. So, yes, they have a legal right to the commission.
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Affiliates and sponsorships/promotions are two entirely different things though.

It’s an ultimately a business model and a very far stretch from a scam.

Anyone with half a brain should question how on earth would Honey make any money when nobody is handing money over to them directly and therein lies the answer to why this couldn’t work by simply giving vouchers/coupons away to everyone.

So like most businesses the details are hidden in the fine print, and the rest is just marketing.

To me you could only call something a scam if money changes hand and nobody delivers on that investment, which isn’t happening here.
 
SauRoNZA said:
To me you could only call something a scam if money changes hand and nobody delivers on that investment, which isn’t happening here.
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I believe you're overlooking an important detail. Take a closer look at the actual browser add on. Here's an example.

Johny hasn’t received any sponsorship from Honey to promote them, but he runs a blog or YouTube channel where he reviews camping gear. Stacy enjoys the tent Johny recommends and uses his affiliate link to Amazon. However, since she also has the Honey browser extension installed, Honey effectively hijacks Johny’s commission by overriding his affiliate link.

What do you call the above?
 
Adenoid Hynkel said:
I believe you're overlooking an important detail. Take a closer look at the actual browser add on. Here's an example.

Johny hasn’t received any sponsorship from Honey to promote them, but he runs a blog or YouTube channel where he reviews camping gear. Stacy enjoys the tent Johny recommends and uses his affiliate link to Amazon. However, since she also has the Honey browser extension installed, Honey effectively hijacks Johny’s commission by overriding his affiliate link.

What do you call the above?
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Business. You're conveniently ignoring the little detail that honey has looked for (and possibly found) a discount for Stacy's tent.
 
Speedster said:
Business. You're conveniently ignoring the little detail that honey has looked for (and possibly found) a discount for Stacy's tent.
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That's a fair point, but it's worth considering the broader picture here. While Honey might have found Stacy a discount, it's doing so at the expense of Johny's efforts. Honey has no contract with Johny. Besides, apparently it would only find you a discount 1 out of 10 times and still collect the commission.

While I don't think it's a scam, it borderlines theft. Theft won't fly, but I'm sure they can be nailed for unfair competition and interference with contractual relations, hence the class action.
 
Adenoid Hynkel said:
That's a fair point, but it's worth considering the broader picture here. While Honey might have found Stacy a discount, it's doing so at the expense of Johny's efforts. Honey has no contract with Johny. Besides, apparently it would only find you a discount 1 out of 10 times and still collect the commission.

While I don't think it's a scam, it borderlines theft. Theft won't fly, but I'm sure they can be nailed for unfair competition and interference with contractual relations, hence the class action.
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That's my point - Johny doesn't have a right to the affiliate commission. Stacy could've watched a 45min in depth review by Johny which convinced her that's the tent she wants. YT autoplayed Pete's video afterwards which also had a link to the tent on Amazon, which Stacy clicked after watching less than 3 seconds of Pete's video. Pete now gets the referral commission.

Honey at least offers the possibility of finding a discount code.
 
Speedster said:
That's my point - Johny doesn't have a right to the affiliate commission. Stacy could've watched a 45min in depth review by Johny which convinced her that's the tent she wants. YT autoplayed Pete's video afterwards which also had a link to the tent on Amazon, which Stacy clicked after watching less than 3 seconds of Pete's video. Pete now gets the referral commission.
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Hardly the same. Pete didn’t interfere with Johny’s link to replace it.

Speedster said:
Honey at least offers the possibility of finding a discount code.
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Even if you'd just dismiss the honey pop up, it would replace the affiliate URL. Sneaky sneaky.
 
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