The Honey Scam: Explained

[@thecuddlysatan]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="85">1:25</a> Just so y’all know: Honey had 20M users before the Megalag story broke out.

[@MoneyMadeKade]

Damn so 3 million and counting deleted it.

[@owenjenkinsofficial]

It’s about to go down again I bet

[@adnanahmed5066]

Starting the new year with a controversy, great start

[@itsjustme4026]

just so you know there were some guys who made videos explaining the whole scam 4 years ago, and megaLag didnt even acknowledge their existence Edit: two of them are, OriginalMCW and Affiliate Marketing MC

[@ItsAllFiat]

​@itsjustme4026 it'd be cool if u directed the reader to this supposed video.

[@MrUnknownXD]

Any product that has massive "influencer" marketing push is an instant *RED FLAG* for me

[@13ON3S]

Like ridge wallets 😂

[@sephron17]

that would be almost every product you see then 😂

[@Medabee8]

​@@13ON3Sridge wallets are a scam simply because they're so expensive

[@mazdaxc90]

Funny cuz you are the scammer here

[@lkhgsllksgj]

A lot of people have been promoting rocket money recently but that one is actually just a great service the rest are usually obviously bad like raid shadow legends

[@b.d162]

Honey has never found me a deal, not once. Glad to see them going under.

[@HH-le1vi]

They're not dead yet

[@overworlder]

i uninstalled after a few months of it doing nothing it claimed

[@SpaceForceCooks]

It's a pretty safe bet they'll change their process

[@misterk7_-]

I used it and it didn’t work so I uninstalled it. Might try to delete my account now but that’s about it

[@TheStoicBrowser]

​@SpaceForceCooks reply in a year's time but I completely doubt it. This is their business model. This is how they make MONEY. They won't change a little bit. Majority of users who have honey installed won't do anything

[@borgesbm]

Marques, with all due respect, even before the scam was known: you should not promote an extension that tracks ALL browsing from the user. This should be a hard no, always.

[@cottsak]

I want to agree with this. But it’s hard for a non-tech-savvy creator to know about principles like this: browser extensions have the potential power to modify all of your browser activity. Oh wait! This IS a tech-savvy creator. 🤦‍♂️ Do better Marques.

[@loremipsum685]

what about a password manager like 1password or bitwarden?

[@stuartburt]

Money talks. These “creators” will blindly take money and sellout there audience. Not the first time and won’t be the last.

[@cottsak]

@ you wanna be very sure you trust that thing! I use one and I’m ruthless about it. Look at peer research. Find out if others have tested it and verified that it doesn’t do shady shit. If you’re going to use that thing and give it power over all of your browsing activity (essentially: your life) then you better be dam sure it’s not stabbing you in the back.

[@Sjon_E]

Dude, he doens't care, most youtubers don't care. If they get thrown literal bags of money to promote it, they're going to promote it. Him and Linus are two of the biggest tech focused KZbinrs, they knew better, they just didn't/don't care, this is all PR clean up.

[@ToolDemos]

It’s funny how they named it after a honey trap. One of the most common ways to compromise somebody and get what you want from them.

[@The-ZebraFinch-Channel]

Good thing I was too lazy to install it 😊

[@StripofPaper]

It's funny, I used it for a few days and it never found coupons for things I wanted to buy Figured it was a scam and uninstalled then and there 😂

[@votdfak]

Honey Pot...

[@T33K4Y]

@@The-ZebraFinch-Channel how lazy are you?? i'm a lazy af bum, but even i want to save money when buying stuff, ESPECIALLY when it's so easy. i must know the level of laziness you possess. how did you aquire such power?? i swear if you're too lazy to respond...

[@BewareTheLilyOfTheValley]

​@@StripofPaper It too rarely found coupons for me but neither did searching the internet on my own, so I just figured there were none for the site I was using. But I stay shopping on Bed, Bath and Beyond's website and they still haven't stopped with the 20% coupons (without needing a browser extension), so I get my discounts that way.

[@HeisenbergFam]

The fact Markiplier predicted this scam like 5 years ago is wild

[@bebopman5]

@DontReadMyPicture443 too late.....now what?

[@Semiemic]

@@HeisenbergFam fr and another thing to Honey Played all the big tech channels

[@que_creations]

What's wild is the profit generated over 5 years! Worth the investment!

[@23236638]

He didn’t predict it he just said he had an off feeling about it

[@HandledToaster2]

I mean it was incredibly obviously fishy from the start.

[@Waldohasaskit210]

The biggest lesson from the Honey scandal is that almost all creators do zero due diligence into the products and companies they recommend. Don't trust any sponsored recommendations, especially those that are being sponsored everywhere. Edit: If we can't expect influencers to research the products or companies they recommend, regardless of whether it's because they're not technically savvy enough or if they just can't be bothered, then we shouldn't trust recommendations. The whole point of a recommendation is to get trustworthy information about the product/company. If we can't trust influencers to not ask basic questions when they see truckloads of cash being splashed everywhere with no discernible revenue source then we shouldn't trust their recommendations.

[@nikandfor]

so true

[@axeldabee8763]

No, you should always think about what you do online and not just blindly trust everything just because someone recommends something. How should he have checked this?

[@LukaszBrodziak]

Remember “Established titles”?

[@Eastcoastprince]

Easier said than done. It took years to discover Honey's scam.

[@LukaszBrodziak]

@Eastcoastprince agreed. As a QA engineer working with web apps I am used to have dev tool opened in my browser 24/7 and watching the api calls and data being sent on websites (call it occupational fixation) so I would have spotted this had I used Honey. But many normal users don’t even verify web addresses (that’s why phishing is so effective) let alone even knowing about dev tools so yes it is difficult to spot especially if you don’t even know what to look for.

[@yagoaraicoplatero6612]

Moral of this story: creators don't really check what they promote if the bag is big enough

[@rubenvandendriessche6256]

its pretty normal that they dont test the product to see what happens behind the scenes on a website, it takes way to much work and knowledge to find out what they were doing

[@tonydivine]

Linus Tech Tips did check, but they just stayed quiet, not that they have an obligation to help others but bro could of let us know

[@thewelshwarrior4634]

Whilst I think creators should have done more due diligence in their defense Honey is owned by PayPal which is a pretty well known company and if it seems like most other creators are being sponsored by them you are going to assume they're legit. People don't do their due diligence on say Ford when they buy a car cus they assume if loads of people are driving them they must be fine. This is more a case of how spending power and assumption on innocence can obscure you from critically thinking about a (person or) companies motives/end goal than a case of KZbinrs being greedy when they saw the dollar on offer.

[@brettfleiner4906]

Well in this case they basically paid themeselves to do the promotion using theier lost affiliate earnings + more on top of that lol.

[@d947]

yup

[@FreezeFun]

Fyi PayPal bought Honey for 4 BILLION dollars! That's an instant red flag for me because it doesn't make sense for a for-profit public company to spend that much money for a browser extension. The fact that PayPal executives and shareholders approved such a large acquisition means they saw something that we didn't. And now we know why...

[@saddammalima8458]

Exactly why is no one pointing fingers to PayPal? They would definitely know what their subsidiary is doing no?

[@Explore_Montreal]

Paypal is the biggest thief under a legal business name .

[@thecrackin-u8p]

Crooked PayPal buying crooked companies

[@FabioGrenkh]

@@Explore_MontrealWhy is that?

[@dycedargselderbrother5353]

@@saddammalima8458 It feels like the internet has forgotten. PayPal used to be roundly criticized all the time. It's not surprising at all for people who were around during the "PayPal Sucks" days.

[@nowayspidey]

"They called me a madman" ~ Markiplier

[@liqourspapi]

😂😂

[@The-ZebraFinch-Channel]

Little did we know

[@manuelight]

it literally affects only creators. who tf cares. don't expect it to give you every single coupon, use a second extension and apply both searches. simple. influencers yet again crying that they don't make 2 million instead of 1 million lol

[@IR_IE_ID]

never used honey because I had the same logic as him, I couldn't figure out how they were making money, the whole thing made no sense now we know ....

[@The-ZebraFinch-Channel]

@ naw dawg it also steals our data

[@Philipsfuture]

...if the product is free, then you're the product...

[@yonkocommander5531]

*you’re EXPECTED to be the product, you don’t necessarily have to be, COD Warzone is free because they expect me to buy the battle pass, but I don’t

[@imnotblackpinkfanimtheirai5300]

nothing is more expensive than free products

[@Snakyy1]

Unless it’s open source :)

[@JBMFers]

what about water fountains

[@goatguythepowerful]

​@@yonkocommander5531Even then, you are still the product. You fill up the servers and keep the paying players online by filling their matches.

[@chungdha]

Don't use any discount extensions as they all might be doing the same thing.

[@RybekRybs]

Also websites that list coupon codes do the same shit. They inject their affiliate link/cookie the moment you reveal the code

[@King_zack_gaming]

I'm actually proud of myself that I was so lazy to add honey to my browser

[@BM-si2ei]

Same. A lifetime of being advertised to makes me numb to ads, even things I may want.

[@adrianoawz2676]

well if you don't search or use coupons in general than Honey is still a net win at least for yourself. It still can give you a coupon just not the best one and the affiliate link thing is not really an issue for you as a consumer.

[@Jamal-ed6ch]

i added it then deleted a week later

[@cuckoophendula8211]

Same for me. Or more so that I tend to like my browser being nice and tidy without any extraneous pop ups thank you very much.

[@nova-j7r]

I am a simple man. I literally add nothing other than ublock.

[@ThrillerALi]

Report “Honey” to the FTC and Consumer Protection Bureau. It would be a step towards deterring this kind of behavior.

[@ConradFarley]

Cry about it

[@andrewgoodall2183]

I'm not reporting anyone about anything. This is a KZbinr's problem, not mine. Like we all have to form a lynch mob for some sh*thead browser extension (that you should never have installed anyway, duhh) just because some rich KZbinr tells me we should. Get some self respect and work for yourself, not for some internet personality.

[@akrama225]

@@andrewgoodall2183 all that yap just to prove absolutely nothing, just say you don't care and move on.

[@Rizwaan122]

@@andrewgoodall2183 you obviously haven't watched the videos. This is not just about KZbinr affiliate links. It's the fact they make deals with companies to decide which coupons to show to the customers/end users, so they're never actually showing you the best deals. You could do a quick search and find a 10% off code, but if u use honey, they'd deliberately hide that code from you and instead apply the 2% coupon.

[@msaadmin123]

The consumers are still getting discounts and saving money tho, they exaggerated promotion with their "the best deal" but it's just marketing, puffery. Honey didn't directly "scam" any party, it's like suing a company for marketing the product as "the best gaming mouse" or "the best prices" webstores. As for the creator's affiliates it's also not a direct harm in a legal way, just like adblocking companies can't be proven guilty in doing damages to creators in court, can't imagine that happening...

[@flamingburitto]

A golden rule I have is that if I can't figure out how a company makes money then I don't use their product. Because in every scenario where the "product" is free. *You* are the product. You are their revenue.

[@austinsmith1293]

I thought about it too, and I assumed that they got a commission from websites for sales due to increasing the chance a consumer would buy something with a discount. Turns out I was right, but in a much worse way.

[@debtanaymisra9707]

stop using youtube

[@squngy0]

A lot of people assumed they made money by stealing your data. (who buys what is super valuable info) They probably do that, but it turns out they do other things too.

[@KNRS927]

This. Another golden rule for me is that a company needs to actually be good and have a product that sells itself if I were to use them. When a product needs to rely on billions of views and influencer/celebrity marketing over an actual good product that sells itself, that's a red flag.

[@RaianMahfuz10]

@@debtanaymisra9707 sorry but this doesn’t make sense. Considering you are using KZbin for free, you still have to watch their ads and that’s the product they’re selling. Either that or the premium subscription being the product so yeah, your comparison of Honey and KZbin is invalid.

[@alxjeo]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="100">1:40</a> The word you were looking for is "prolific". 😄

[@flashul3616]

Proliferative*

[@MrCakes-v7w]

"Profligiteriverlsh"

[@nicholaskarpuk942]

It's a modern version of the mafia protection racket. "Give us a cut or we'll provide all of our users your best coupon codes."

[@user-md6jf4pu7f]

Correct, I won't call it a scam but a blackmail, digital or not

[@swegatron2859]

@@user-md6jf4pu7f they willingly put those good coupons out there, it’s hardly blackmail. Many browsers like Microsoft edge have integrated coupon suggestions anyway

[@9al766]

I'm confused, If the retailer doesnt want the 20% coupon to be used why wouldn't they just remove it? whats the point of putting a coupon that you dont want anyone to use?

[@cheekibreeki8596]

​@@9al766I'm guessing they want to keep those coupons to incentivise specific groups (idk membership anniversary gift?) but honey is essentially threatening to tell everyone the secret offer

[@MinimumViablePicnic]

When I ran a store we would use them for things like getting first time customers to come and shop a second time (make a habit to shop with us) which is worth it because we would be likely to get many sales after that, or sometimes a discount for newsletter sign up because it's very valuable to use, but we would never publish codes very publicly. Sometimes we would discount the products themselves for stock control reasons.

[@fillory]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="370">6:10</a> it’s not only a scam though. honey is a protection racket shakedown. “hey, it would be a shame if we recommended this coupon code to your consumers… give us 5% commission and it’ll all go away”

[@markzheng]

this is what i'm thinking as well. this isn't a scam to consumers...they're still getting discount codes that they wouldn't get otherwise...but it is certainly a shakedown to the brands that feel forced to give the commission. guess it hurts the consumer if a brand ends up raising a price just because of honey but that seems unlikely

[@SunriseWaterMedia]

​@@markzhengIt also hurts the customer when they don't show a better coupon code that can be found via a Google search.

[@PennDavies]

@@markzheng It is a scam for users, because it says it'll find codes and it demonstrably doesn't do as well as a simple web search will do in many cases. Megalag literally recommended coupon codes to it which it ignored, because it had deals with the vendors to not show high-value codes.

[@soundeffectonly-os3iy]

it's basially a scam to creators

[@whschopke98]

@@markzheng Businesses will always pass down costs to consumers, and considering that the stores that worked with honey knew exactly how much they were loosing due to honey, it's fair to assume that products got a small bump in price to compensate.

[@clarryvu]

Just a head up for folks that have also been inundated with KZbin ads from the Pie extension: Pie was created by the founder of Honey so it's safe to assume they're using a similar business model and using their incessant ads to convince you to get the extension.

[@pmHidden]

They're basically just doing the same they were doing with affiliate links, just with advertisements instead. So they show their own advertisements instead of the original ones, offering you 1/100th of the advertisement money they get while screwing over the sites that rely on advertisement to stay active (which is most sites on the internet).

[@callumery119]

​@@pmHidden"while screwing over the websites".. isn't that what you're doing anyway? Using adblock, i mean. Using adblock takes the ad revenue from the website owners.

[@runuphill]

@@callumery119 -- there's a solution -- use an extension which speeds up ads. That means the ads still "play" and the revenue goes to the website owner, but the user is much less aggravated by the godawful ads. My favorite extension, which has worked perfectly on KZbin, is "KZbin Ad Accelerator & Easy Speed Drag"

[@XXman23]

@@callumery119 So be it. The internet isn't meant for handouts, if I can find a way to browse the internet without ads I will, and so will millions. If websites can find a way to make money legally at the expense of some customers, they will too. Boo hoo, websites make enough money.

[@marquiszhaoreal]

i have personally used pie, they have this system where you CAN get sponsored ads for money. I never got any money from it. HOWEVER, it is good for blocking ads.

[@Jakereviewsall]

I believe Megalag said it was part one of three in a series. The scamming runs so deep it is sad. I removed as soon as I saw his video that day, I tried to spread it around since I have a lot of people who try to support small creators and honey has been taking from all of us. Honey never found me deals but I used it for other tools such as price watching but I always clicked those darn boxes which means every person I ever tried to support while using honey got nothing. I normally go out of my way to click random small creators links when I shop over a large creator .

[@KameTrick]

It's rad of you to try to support small creators thru affiliate links for stuff you were gonna buy anyway👌

[@Jakereviewsall]

@@KameTrick im a small creator myself so I understand, I also believe in karma.

[@toejamr1]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="600">10:00</a> this should be said every time this comes up. Instead of just “honey” it should be called “PayPal’s honey.”

[@nicholasfactor]

especially since the Honey Rewards are now PayPal Rewards

[@member529]

skip to <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="400">6:40</a> if you want to skip him just repeating the original video

[@barsusbar2589]

Gangster Comment

[@wilinstonthompson1352]

How is it a gangster Comment? Do you work for Honey/Paypal because you skip the whole HOW honey is scamming consumers .

[@soltude]

​@@wilinstonthompson1352some of us have watched the entire original video many times and just want a creator's response on it

[@wilinstonthompson1352]

@soltude But the MAJORITY need to HEAR and SEE the scam these influencers didn't bother to research ( just took the money) and pushed out to their viewers .

[@tylerjohnson3523]

@soltude You've watched the original video (from 11 days ago) so many times that you're just here for a little variation? That's sad.

[@AppleTechPro870]

I never used honey. Since the beginning it didn’t seem right. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.

[@DJLsbVapes]

No surprise, honey belongs to PayPal, which is another massive shady business company, with so many shady wrong doings over the years…

[@haydenm2216]

Well they recently purchased Honey. This “scam” has been running since the beginning of Honey.

[@LaureanoFulco]

@@haydenm2216maybe it was love at first sight

[@paiman_]

PayPal? Really? I've been using PayPal for years and haven't noticed any wrong doings as a user. Could you explain?

[@CarlosRodriguez19620]

@@paiman_Reddit will most likely answer your questions

[@fanres9974]

Knowing so many online service that used to be partnered with Paypal all of the sudden just severed their partnership in recent memory make me want to say "I knew it!".

[@DISOPtv]

I think everyone doesn't really understand, this doesn't just affect youtubers, it affects ALL affiliates of any product Honey is also an affiliate of. They have probably stolen a billion of affiliate publisher dollars in their run. So if Honey has an affiliate link to the site another affiliate sent you to, Honey will get paid the commission. It's pure evil.

[@tchittesh]

Another way to put it... Honey has 17M users. Every time any of those users clicks the Honey button, if Honey is an affiliate of that seller, they will get paid the commission. That's very conservatively 17M dollars, assuming $1 commission per user

[@Veodin]

It basically a virus/adware. A dodgy browser extension hijacking commission.

[@OTH89]

@@DISOPtv who cares, I just want the product I am searching for, at the cheapest possible price.

[@nickwong3054]

@@OTH89you missed the point, vendors are able to limit the coupons available on honey’s coupon database so that you don’t get a higher coupon to use. You aren’t getting the best deal

[@doyle8711]

@@OTH89 You won't through Honey that's the point they aren't just stealing from creators they are making deals with businesses so you won't get the cheapest price possible. If there's a 20% off coupon and a 3% coupon Honey will only show you the 3% and take a payback from that company for lying to you.

[@calebchristensenviolin]

I’m surprised Marques made a video on this. Everyone was theorizing the big YTers wouldn’t so as to not cause alarm to future sponsors.

[@vvvictoriav5958]

yeah, Linus was super butthurt and defensive about being asked why they didnt talk more about dumping them as a sponsor. This is a W from Marques, and he needs one rn

[@JuhoSprite]

he is probably just trying to clear his name and is riding this wave of hate, because previously people were hating on him.

[@ZaytheRaz]

@@vvvictoriav5958 We’ll see if the hypocrites that have been plaguing the comments here can keep the same energy for LTG.

[@xpkareem]

Marques understands that his reputation is worth more than any future deals with shady sponsors. He is also in a position that he can pick and choose his sponsors.

[@zacharylowe8083]

@@vvvictoriav5958I disagree. People are holding him to a different standard for no reason.

[@B0BHW]

Let me get this right... Honey is owned by PayPal? So PayPal fully endorses how Honey operates. Goodbye PayPal.

[@RonaiHenrik]

You're only waking up now to paypal being a nefarious scam? They have been using these shady tactics for so many years that I stopped using them many, many years ago when they pulled a similar trick, I don't exactly remember what. I also told all my family to stop using them for the same reason.

[@HistoryInClip]

how would you make online transactions ?

[@tylersmith7054]

I’m strongly considering distancing myself from PayPal. There are times I need it but there are instances (emergency fund savings account) that I could use a number of competitors.

[@DozIT]

@@HistoryInClip credit card?

[@RonaiHenrik]

@@HistoryInClip I use direct payments and don't go through PayPal. I'm not sure about others but I always can find another way, thankfully PayPal hasn't monopolised payments where I live (Hungary).

[@TheMilanMovies]

Megalag is such a great channel, he did an awesome two part series about the chroma glasses, those glasses that let colorblind people “see color”

[@Lovin_NY93]

I loved his air tag into North Korea series

[@yensteel]

I was annoyed when the colorblind community ignored the influencer lies the video presented and simply said "it works for some, it doesn't for others". And posts that defended and explained that video got down-voted. People who got sponsored react as if they got new eyes like that Logan dude. I've seen correct information get down-voted all the time. Crowd sourcing at its worst.

[@guyinagame4793]

omg I didnt know that was the same guy.

[@Odins-Dad]

As a colorblind person I've always been skeptical of those glasses. Because you can't put a filter in front of an eye to make it see what it can't see. Like using a camera to see the infared light from a TV remote, That's not you seeing infrared light, it's just the camera shifting the light to the spectrum you CAN see. It used to be that when people learned I was colorblind they would ask "what color is my shirt" or "what color is that over there?", and I grew to dislike those questions, because your shirt looks normal. I can't tell you how I see because it's normal to me. I can't explain to you something I've never known. But now, the first question anyone asks me is "have you tried those glasses" and I hate that question SO much more because of the deceptive marketing they do.

[@DanielTompkinsGuitar]

Yeah, I’m strongly colorblind, and people are always asking about those glasses. I was so happy to see that video! I knew it couldn’t work because of basic science of how eyes see color, but I didn’t realize what a huge scam it was. I thought all the crying videos were just placebo, but it makes more sense that they were an ad scam.

[@thelightwielder]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="113">1:53</a> I think *_prolific_* is the word you were looking for

[@ogbops]

😂 100%

[@tomdechert9832]

profligate

[@DKamui06]

Came here to say this. Ha ha ha

[@jjhassy]

i think 1:43 is the timestamp you were looking for

[@TJ-un2zv]

@@jjhassy Nice try its 1:38

[@a.lumpia]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="98">1:38</a> - I'm an English teacher and I love that this happened because you were looking for the word 'prolific' but 'proliferate' is also a related word but it's a verb whereas the first sentence needed an adjective which caused the slip up. This stuff fascinates me about humans lol

[@Loonaurtheworld]

I'm currently majoring in English Lit in my (entering) 8th semester, and wants to be an English Teacher, and I also felt the same lolll

[@rns01111]

"honey has proliferated around KZbin" is correct right? Or should it be "honey has become profilic"

[@ReclaimerTyphoon]

I didn't even know 'proliferate' was a word. This complicates things. Because I'm not going to remember it, but it's still going to taint my ability to find the right word in the moment. I had that happen today during an argument I was having, and the other person knew what I was trying to get at, and helped me find the word, and they even stumbled through some words to try to find it, and... yeah. Language, and language usage/the complexities of communication is interesting and fun.

[@wotizit]

Oui oui linguini

[@erum.m]

@@ReclaimerTyphoon Love that the person you were arguing with was trying to help you do that LOL.

[@rollvideo]

Marques. This should be a class-action for creators. And an Anti-Trust for consumers.

[@omermirza5994]

Yes. Why is no one talking about legal action?

[@wotizit]

Wallpapers

[@mopnem]

@@omermirza5994Prob because “creators” are adding add vids even if one pays for no ads..

[@MVM.7]

Marques: I am a tech guy and I clearly didn’t do my research

[@chiquita683]

Bro is cooked

[@MrDefjam100]

i know marques life flashed before his eyes seeing ANOTHER controversy video with his face on the thumbnail 💀

[@davidschultz1562]

What was the other one?

[@thefooshisloose]

LOL, he is set for life and almost nothing will stop that. He is a multimillionaire from youtube and he can hire a team of attorneys to fix anything if it arises. He just needs to do what is right and he will be fine in life which is why you see him making this video today.

[@PAshish-dh5fk]

@@thefooshisloose that didnt save mrbeast from cancel culture

[@lordshakingcrying7778]

​@PAshish-dh5fk mr beast is still happily making more videos after being so called "canceled"

[@Player-pj9kt]

@@PAshish-dh5fk mr beast is doing fine. His recent videos got a ton of views so cancelling him did nothing

[@heyabasu]

Glad to see an influencial creator like MKBHD mention things to do, like uninstall honey etc, because of its shady practice. What shocked me from the Megalag video is, that apparently another bug KZbinr Linus who has a pretty good following knew about this and did not bring it up in public. Which if they had, many smaller KZbinrs could have avoided their affiliate links being poached.

[@Synest2]

Fun fact, it had 20,000,000 users before the video, it dropped a LOT since Megalag's video dropped

[@RZenith]

Not a lot, I never knew anyone who used honey.

[@arjan127]

@@RZenith "I never knew anyone" is always a very good metric to use, of course.

[@collinsonOga]

​@@RZeniththe world does not revolve around you

[@randomnickify]

​@@RZenith fun fact: people generally surround themselves with people similar to them in terms of hobby, politics, beliefs etc... fact you "do not know anyone" means exactly nothing.

[@Gatitasecsii]

​@@RZenith Yeah yknow, a frequent topic of conversation for my acquaintances is what browser plug-ins we use

[@avelord6135]

Established Titles and Highland Titles, Honey, Betterhelp........not the first time and probably not the last. Creators should be more aware of who sponsors them BEFORE the fact. The damage is already done now.

[@jamescassar5348]

Better help aswell? Oh the irony!

[@GermanCptSlow]

A podcast I listen to, Painkiller Already, uses the phrase "If the money's there, we don't care". Probably applies to most, if not all, KZbinrs (and people).

[@alexp8785]

@@jamescassar5348betterhelp has had terrible reviews for like.. 10 years

[@Damonvile]

@@jamescassar5348 Yeah it's terrible. and what's worse is they were exposed years ago and I guess people just forgot and then came back with a bunch of new Ads and people defended them.

[@blueeyedscorpio7]

GMM still promotes better help...

[@KrzPBkn]

Thank you, Marques for cutting out the ad from your previous videos! Not everyone would/could have done that

[@Muaddib1776]

Marcus only out here liking the comments that either praise him or agree with him is wild

[@trinhnguyenluong4485]

@@Muaddib1776bro if u were him would u like a bash comment for u?

[@FirestormX9]

​@@Muaddib1776 hahah 😂

[@merlumili]

yeah esp since they're phone reviews so people will still actively look for them

[@overworlder]

Everyone will do that - Honey is stealing their income

[@DrHopeSickNotes]

I think any creator that was sponsored by Honey should at least start a video like this with an apology to their viewers; I know creators got scammed too but Honey wouldn't have got anywhere without people doing some basic due diligence

[@dahorn100011]

I wonder, whether honey actually started with a bait and switch. Maybe the affiliate link thing wasn't there at the start. Got enough of a critical mass then started switching links. People were tempted in to save money. And were appearing to do so.

[@lescarneiro]

Way, waaaaaaay better response than Linus to the whole problem, acknowledged it, showed how you made sure to not promote it further even on older videos, did not get defensive... you did great Marques! Looks like you learned a thing or two...

[@gorkskoal9315]

lol that's a low bar: Hi! I sold something on lown to me for review. (and then goes back to cringe videos.)

[@crisdotph]

@@gorkskoal9315 agree. such a low bar :D

[@jamilahrazzaq8780]

Womp womp womp 😂

[@SosetaFurioasaJr]

Bro why did he stop after 3 sponsored videos when himself said they were so easy to work with. I believe most of them (LTT, MKBHD) found out and told Honey and then Honey paid them to keep their mouths shut. Otherwise it makes no sense why have only 3 sponsored videos when you admit they paid well and were easy to work with. And MKHDB deleting my initial comment when I pointed that out just goes to confirm this.

[@taranullius9221]

What a low bar. He's a huge tech channel but can't work out some basic stuff? I can understand some of my makeup YTbers not being that techy, trying to give their followers real savings. This guy knew out of the gate this was a huge data harvesting operation/invasion of privacy (at a minimum) and did it anyway. I did. Never touched the thing, 'cos I have a modicum of tech knowledge.

[@lukelaws3545]

Glad you are addressing this. Crazy that it went undetected for years

[@someone28]

It was talked about 4 years ago but no one cared. I honestly don't understand why it went so viral now but better late then never.

[@plasmac9]

How do all these creators not see their affiliate links are bringing in zero revenue and then not question why that is?

[@TomTKK]

​@plasmac9 They don't, that's the thing. You can't track it

[@TheOnlyName]

As someone who is in the cybersecurity space a little bit you think someone would have done at least a little bit of research into how it works years ago!

[@TheOnlyName]

​@@someone28I'm not surprised MegaLag was the one to bring this to light, but I wonder how many people contacted KZbinrs about this, surely not too many considering the amount of creators who have done Honey sponsorships?

[@garypearse4314]

I can't believe Paypal weren't aware. They bought Honey for $4 billion. There would have been lawyers looking up and down and through the accounts and practices of Honey before they signed the purchase. This is blowing up on Honey, but their owners are just as culpable in my eyes.

[@MissRyukkie]

Oh they were more than aware. How do you think they got the leverage to limit codes with retailers? Papa Paypal standing behind them with a baseball bat.

[@Jas0n2571]

Yeah, PayPal definitely knew

[@pmHidden]

Of course, they were aware. You're not buying a company without knowing where their revenue is coming from.

[@Mkvkuv]

They knew

[@nwndr]

Paypal probably thought it was a genius idea to poach the affiliates. That's why they paid 4 billion for it.

[@igretrovods9189]

There is another important detail. Extension can alter web page so if you have honey extension, it can make price appear higher for you

[@timaidley7801]

I enjoyed this video, and maybe I'll get flamed for this, but I feel like Marques could at least say "Hey, I know I recommended this service, and I'm sorry if you installed it because of that."

[@soul0360]

I'll go a bit further. Same concerns about doing so. He doesn't care about us. This video is easy money, no research needed. Hopefully you uninstall Honey, so he can get, that affiliate money again. And he bets, rightfully according to most comments. That viewers see this video, as owning up to a mistake. Despite me and you, not really seeing that. Hence it can repair his recent reputation hit a bit.

[@AnthemAnarchy]

@@soul0360wow two intelligent people in a KZbin comment section, what are the odds?

[@andresct6250]

@@soul0360 Exactly lol Why does he even need to do a video explaining what is already explained wonderfully in the original video? As you said; it's EZ money.

[@sparkz992]

@@soul0360 if he didn't make this vid he'd probably also get backlash

[@mattbaillargeon]

He should donate the money he made off the honey sponsored videos or something. Regardless of this scam, mkbhd made money off of their sponsor.

[@Niramay-ff2uy]

The megalag video is so so good!!!! Worth watching, big time... one of the best videos of 2024

[@satanismybrother]

I’m not seeing enough of this in the comments. MegaLags video on this is exceptional journalism and he deserves a lot of credit for his forensic level of investigation and communication to the public.

[@eugenerhee9297]

A little ironic that we have Google to thank for making the megalag video go viral.

[@MateoMorrosMartin]

MegaLag deserves more credit.

[@ernestofox6684]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="103">1:43</a> prolific!

[@mechomics]

Profitable?

[@Therealbrez]

I WAS GOING TO COME DOWN HERE AND SAY THAT

[@Auraachive]

Porportable 🗿

[@mechomics]

@@Auraachive portable?

[@ernestofox6684]

@@mechomicsI’m pretty sure he was looking for prolific, he said “proliferating” and was describing how widespread the sponsorships were, or how prolific they were as a sponsor

[@RandomHandle120]

I always assumed Honey was just a sketchy data mining operation. I never imagined they would just flat out lie to consumers and steal content creators' money.

[@GreaterTherapeutics]

Also no one is talking about the fact that browser extensions gather data and that data is so much more valuable than all that they’ve already stole!

[@hummbug72]

If you’re surprised that any company takes your personal data, I mean good luck with every single free thing on your phone/computer

[@joesligo1516]

I feel like honey had a story break out on that very topic years ago.

[@willwunsche6940]

Same with TVs that sell your watch data even from some of the biggest brands. You have to go into the settings and toggle it off.

[@HH-le1vi]

​@joesligo1516 they did. Years ago people noticed it was changing who got credit for the sale. That's why LTT and other creators dropped them.

[@Sw33tBabyRays]

If someone doesn't know that their data is being collected, they deserve it for being stupid.

[@bradleybruvva3021]

I don’t think I’ve ever used a KZbinrs affiliate codes. I’ve never once been tempted to use a service that KZbinrs promote. I always just skip through the advertising parts of videos.

[@Gl_3tch]

almost every time I have ever seen an ad, I never purchase that product because of the ad lol

[@critical_always]

Sponsor block

[@faustprivate]

Or you ended up clicking, forgot about it and the affiliate code was applied without you knowing 😂

[@MBSzCat]

an affiliate code isn't just from a sponsored segment. MKBHD may do a review of the Samsung s24 Ultra for example and put a link to purchase it in the desc of the video. Just by clicking that, the referral is saved to your browser for 30 days for example. It's not always ads

[@ObjectiveMediaDoesntExist]

@@bradleybruvva3021 also some sites give the creator a portion of anything purchased on the site over 30 days.

[@michaelnatolejr]

This is a great lesson that when something is free, it usually is too good to be true.

[@Muaddib1776]

Ight, grandpa. You done? Got that incredibly cliche thing out of your system?

[@Fighter178]

Not unless is free and open source then it usually isn't. FOSS is great.

[@riz4141]

Oxygen is free

[@shauryajain6490]

@@Muaddib1776 toxic 😂

[@walnutninja9106]

youtube is free

[@Matt23488]

They had 20M users before the Megalag video, and 18M as of Theo Browne's video. Glad to see this number drop, I hope they are brought to justice.

[@yassisan52]

the big problem is these youtubers that we trusted they promote any sponsored products

[@JohnSmith-pu4jg]

No, they would never promote something unless it was good, like RAID SHADOW LEGENDS . . . . . dam, maybe your right 🤣

[@repatch43]

Ok, so, what lesson is to be learned from this then? Is it: NEVER TRUST A SALESPERSON? Yes, I think so, take that to heart, please.

[@cameronwoodle]

Arent they kinda the main victims?

[@yassisan52]

@@cameronwoodle if you wach MegaLag vid you'll know that linus knew about it 4 years ago but they weren't public about it

[@im.notsober]

honestly, the only reason I’ve ever heard about honey is from me watching youtubers.

[@animeguy6877]

Influencers when their viewers get scammed: *crickets* 🦗 Influencers when it hits their own pockets: 'Please uninstall!' The good old classic - It only matters when it affects me.

[@alexcuevas5633]

It's not just them, everyone was affected.

[@mogu1656]

this also affects the users

[@lintonfr]

And you would be better how?

[@KDFOXSCI]

Exactly! Now they are owning up to it, but if it would have been only the users we propably wouldn’t have heard of hem.

[@ccclcsr]

Totally agree! If he ever used Honey even once, he would not recommend it

[@_aPaladin]

@<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="355">5:55</a> that is actually called extortion... Surprised no one has sued honey.

[@nextinstitute7824]

Nobody has sued them... Yet. It's a class action lawsuit waiting to happen. This is about billions of dollars.

[@sagarkane]

Sounds very much like the Mafia

[@dsgrant07]

LegalEagle says he's suing them - Class Action

[@willsanborn2178]

Foreshadowing…

[@TheRealCoryKent]

They are being sued.

[@MisterFakeGinger]

I remember years ago seeing videos with this sponsorship and remembered what my mom told me "if it's too good to be true, then it is"

[@sakuluci]

I just stopped using PayPal too. I no longer want to trust a middle person in transactions. Willing to enter my credit card number each time now for peace of mind.

[@mithicash1444]

Paypal was dead to me when they tried to insert a clause in their terms of service that they could "fine" users up to $2000 for misinformation on other platforms. I think it happened at some point during covid.

[@ricardoperez2793]

Technically you are still using a middle man with credit cards.

[@emre_ez]

@@ricardoperez2793yeah you should drive to their hq and give them the money in cash. Dont mail it thats a middleman. Dont write checks, the bank is a middleman.

[@pjsudharshan]

so stupid! Your bank is the middleman! Also, Paypal purchase protection is much better than credit card purchase protection!!

[@shadow-ht5gk]

You clearly have no clue what PayPal actually does lol

[@seanram2139]

FYI : Paypal owns Honey ! Wonder what Paypal is upto !

[@bigdhav]

Gathering data from cookies to take on VISA/MasterCard for selling your shopping habits data.

[@joelnehl]

Time to close your PayPal account, I did a few months ago, can’t remember why, something just didn’t feel right.

[@jamestaylor447]

Massive charges and exchange rate fees

[@dylankelner2856]

FYI: you don't need spaces before your punctuation.

[@christianlapointe7796]

@@dylankelner2856 punctuation specifics differ from language to language. No need for spaces in English, but it's not universal, so more a sign of an English as a second language user.

[@bahnboss-497]

to give them/him (MKBHD, etc) the benefit of the doubt, they might not have known of honeys business practices, although depending on how much compensation they have received it is to be expected to dig into their revenue streams and ask some critical questions before signing the deal. But this also means that (MKBHD, etc) all recommended a programm to their viewers for year w.o, testing if the claims they made in front of their audience were even true. Feels really hard to believe there was absolutely no wrongdoing or misinformation on that side. Who knows maybe they (MKBHD, etc) even received compensation for the stolen commission of them and others. Is it credible (MKBHD, etc) never noticed any decline in their commission during those years? if you ask me they knew from day one at least to some certain extent which would have made it illegitimate to work together with them that honey is not what it itself claimes to be as well as that it is not what they sold it to their viewers to be.

[@bahnboss-497]

please like this so people see it. They are not telling the whole story.

[@SirCutzalot]

I've never heard of honey before the megalag video showed up in my recommendations a few days before. I'm so proud of myself 😂

[@wildgg]

An LTT employee knew about this around like 2020 iirc, crazy how far they got. Remember guys, if something looks to good to be true, it is.

[@toxichazard5015]

I still think it's bad that a platform as big as LTT didn't blow the whistle as loud as they possibly could for the past few years... And just let honey continue

[@A1phaz0ne]

They knew about it, but didn't warn everyone else. Its crazy how someone can be so smart, but then incredibly stupid at the same time.

[@pardonless]

@@A1phaz0ne but it was on their forum. So they didn't think they were muting it. It was covered in one of the latest WAN shows

[@sven957]

ms edge offers me codes without any extensions installed. Is that a scam too?

[@PhilipPetkov]

​@pardonless nope a person asked them about it , that's why it is on the forum and they had 12-14 million subs back then.... a video would have been nice. Also by not saying it more people installed honey and honey still stole LTT revenue even more so. Literally they stopped accepting money but never stopped being robbed 😂😂

[@Cooe.]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="105">1:45</a> It's "prolific" lol.

[@Lexbut]

Was coming to tell him

[@macadelic2492]

I thought it was that too but he was so far off i wasn't sure anymore 😂

[@calebmcurby8580]

Commenting because I too was coming to tell him, and I want to boost this lol

[@nicholasfactor]

Don't steal his struggle, his vocab needs an upgrade.

[@dogdab9795]

Ngl I’m surprised it took this long for Honey to get exposed

[@qazhr]

It not it obvious what it been doing and being bought by PayPal made it look legitimate

[@blackcloud5157]

especially considering how fast Marques usually moves.

[@dogdab9795]

@@qazhr true, but at the same time several people were suspicious from the start, I’m just surprised it took like 4 years for their suspicions to be confirmed

[@ZaytheRaz]

@@blackcloud5157 Go bring this loser energy over to Linus’s and Mr. Beast…those dudes have been scamming you for years and haven’t taken an ounce of accountability.

[@saketsuman8319]

@@blackcloud5157 god yall are so corny 😭

[@brandonlilly5738]

All this video does is reinforce my desire to skip any sponsored ad in videos. Not once has any KZbin creator had a good sponsored ad and I’m over it.

[@francischang]

I think the real lesson is to not trust influencer marketing. If even the biggest channels don't do enough due diligence to protect themselves from being scammed, how much due diligence are they going to do to keep their audience from being scammed when they can profit from the scam?

[@LiveAerosmith]

100% true

[@collinsonOga]

It's not that simple. No amount of research can reveal this type of scam especially at the earlier stages.

[@ArtistryAuto]

but he doesnt want to hear that. is funny bc Markus seemed pretty out of touch w the situation like is not a huge issue.

[@marty4384]

@@collinsonOga people were exposing this 4 years ago

[@CoryMp3]

@@collinsonOga bro its a affiliate cookie. literally anyone can right-click inspect and see the webpage and how it works. Noone bothered to look how it worked. thats the point. Honey offered 50K/mo times 3 months for MKBHD to run ads - it was a legit enough company - DONE. No influencer really cares about the audience more than as far as it helps the bottom line of the business. This doesn't make them evil it makes them a business. Look videos and influencers are just advertisers. Watch the videos learn what you need to but watch more than 1 or 2 for a product. Then reddit them, then look at reviews THEN buy. Don't listen to Marquez about a speaker bar - take it as gospel and buy it.

[@navinadv]

Never saw Honey, never used it. First time I heard of it. The second part explained @<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="330">5:30</a> is a direct conflict of interest. If users signed on to get the coupons with the highest discounts then for Honey to make backroom deals to circumvent that might be grounds for a legal case if there is enough proof (from user EULAs and Retailer contracts).

[@cybernessful]

Moral of the story: most of KZbin "influencers" are just advertisers, that would tell you whatever their customer wants for the right price. There are almost no fair reviews anymore, everything is paid. Like it's supposed to be in the for-the-profit economy.

[@rodtavora]

You just realized that in the last day of 2024?

[@mryellow6918]

You watch mkhb and only just realised this?

[@AlrienJ]

​@@rodtavora you just realizing that he's just realized this?

[@absentpictures7335]

@@mryellow6918lmao

[@nywaterny]

true, but thats where MKBHD fails again. Ridge and dBrand are "great" companies, and he is clearly endorsing their products, above and beyond just advertising.

[@sabertooth_fl]

What's hilariously diabolical is that Honey will replace the affiliate code and steal the kickback EVEN IF THEY FIND NO CODE FOR YOU.

[@beabadoobz]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="138">2:18</a> well that's because they were literally stealing money from creators

[@warrenjoseph76]

Great breakdown. Reminds me of: Businesses pay KZbin to run ads Users pay KZbin to not show those ads

[@timelore44]

damn that hit hard

[@dannybullit]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="499">8:19</a> wait. If you edit out a sponsorship you were already paid for can’t you be sued?

[@cbhat5]

If something was not disclosed and then turns out to be a scam then I don't think suit is doable

[@dimitristerzz]

I don't really think a lawsuit is gonna turn out great for honey

[@flounderflounder6833]

(Source is another yt video so take this at its value) im pretty sure most ad contracts only stipulate you must keep the sponsorship in the video for 2-3 years after which youre free to cut them

[@chiwala4dad634]

Depends on the contract

[@sergioramos3437]

​@@flounderflounder6833came to say the same based on a spiffing brit video lol

[@rickvandiermen8449]

Thanks for the content Honey, we’re even! Regards, Marques

[@sarp_s1905]

Google should remove the extension from the chrome store

[@MobikSaysStuff]

Nah, they are busy remove adblock

[@N0N0111]

Nah, they are busy adding more adblocks blockades.

[@carddamom188]

Google is the worse scammer of them all!!! The mothership of spyware...

[@doyle8711]

Googles probably just angry they didn't think of it first.

[@MobikSaysStuff]

@@LewisBall no one give af about creators making more money bro. People only care about the honey scam because they get worse deals.

[@airbus7373]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="273">4:33</a> I've heard that those coupon codes that Honey finds can even include private codes meant exclusively for staff and/or family. That is, unless the store pays Honey the commission. This sounds like what Megalag referred to in the teaser at the end of his video, and I can't wait to see part 2 of this.

[@omarayman7704]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="355">5:55</a> it's like youtube, companies pay youtube advertise their ads and the users pay to not watch their ads

[@mukombradon]

The thing with youtube is that most users still don't pay for premium so its kinda still fine

[@mightymallet5474]

There's an earning section for KZbinrs: Distribution of earning. Which explains how much money they got from Ads and from KZbin premium users as well. They pay a tiny percentage of premium to the creators. Or at least they used when I was working on my channel as well back until 2022.

[@CamJames]

@@mightymallet5474 can confirm, they still pay us for Premium views

[@suavevalen]

Thank you for posting this video. I knew there had to be a viable explanation for what was going on there and I appreciate you maintaining our trust. o7

[@moletrap2640]

Marques has been on an apology tsunami this past year. Error after error, but at least he acknowledges and apologizes.

[@otabekpardabaev4929]

I appreciate the lesson learnt and the acknowledgement of the required level of skepticism while working with sponsors. Thank you and I hope other Content Creators realise this too.

[@ElijahRhyne]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="35">0:35</a> - subtle yet brilliant

[@crimsontide4415]

what r we looking at?

[@emoney6692]

Yeah what’s the supposed Easter egg here?

[@alexcosmin6377]

The easter egg is that you get a Honey pre-roll ad before going to the "Honey Scam" video

[@ncedwards82]

It's almost like no company has your best interest in mind

[@heromiIes]

Bingo

[@Eesco259]

WHAT?! YOU MEAN THEY ONLY SAY THE RIGHT THINGS IN ORDER TO APPEASE ME EMOTIONALLY BUT ACTUALLY JUST WANT TO USE ME FOR MY BUSINESS?!

[@_Feyd-Rautha]

Only can trust mom and pop operations. Some of em anyway

[@The-Cosmic-Hobo]

Welcome to toxic capitalism.

[@ElPolloDiabloCH]

Companies. Billionaires. Politicians. Never trust any of them.

[@mr.advocatusdiaboli1745]

GG Marques… Great response, and quick to check yourself.❤

[@mapanapa6342]

Meanwhile: KZbin asking money from advertisers to run their ad while also youtube asking money from viewers for premium to avoid the said ads. KZbin: *this is business*

[@MathieuDellon]

From what I understood when they announced "premium accounts", KZbin pays for the ads premium users would have seen without this premium benefit. They pay using a (small?) portion of the subscription fee. But it's not like they simply remove the ads and keep the money for themselves...

[@lyon7218]

Best you move to a 3rd world country no ads ever

[@kaycem]

everyone is figuring out how to make money coming and going while providing the least amount of service possible.

[@DenisKoh]

Servers, services ain't free.

[@KNByam]

Why is that a problem? KZbin is free with ads, pay to avoid ads.

[@FeelMetalMan]

The fact that huge content creators didn't sue them and make that public I think makes it clear that the contract they signed had a gray area were Honey could pull off that stunt.

[@taborevan]

YEP

[@bloedekuh]

I don't see how content creators can sue them. They lied to the users by not providing the best coupons. They didn't lie to the creators right?

[@shadrachpeter]

@@bloedekuh They literally stole their affiliate commission

[@baigfoot7649]

@@bloedekuhthey sniped their affiliate links, so the creators lost out on commission, so yes they can sue

[@BEAST.420G]

@@bloedekuhThey literally stole the creators kickback... Congrats on failing to understand the concept of the problem 👏🏼

[@yaolan4529]

Honey is not the only company or the last company doing this. It is just the largest one right now. Expect to see a lot of copycats claiming to be not-a-honey-scam and finding you really sick coupons in the first few uses. Once you trust them, they'll be the new honeys.

[@GalaxycoolYT]

Everyone who hasn't watch the real video, watch it. I mean this video explains everything but not as in depth and there is a part 2 coming which is supposed to go more in depth about the situation, and he has even worse things to uncover... This is just the start

[@nategwright]

I'm glad that other channels have been pushing this video so much, first Charlie, now Marques. Hopefully this becomes a turning point in the online creator market.

[@TritonTv69420]

this should be a class action lawsuit.

[@msaadmin123]

Don't believe youtubers saying it's possible to win a case like this. What exact party is harmed here and how are they gonna prove damages in the court? The consumers are getting discounts and saving money, they exaggerated promotion with their "the best deal" but it's just marketing, puffery. Honey didn't directly "scam" any party, it's like suing a company for marketing the product as "the best gaming mouse" or "the best prices" webstores. As for the creator's affiliates it's also not a direct harm in a legal way, just like adblocking companies can't be proven to do damages to creators in court, can't imagine that happening.

[@kyle1758]

It's going to be insanely difficult, if not impossible, to get a full record of damages and lost income across the board. Going to be very interesting to watch how this plays out from here.

[@grillinman84]

@@msaadmin123 never mind you're a bot saying the same thing in every comment.

[@GyroCannon]

I’m skeptical as hell about class action lawsuits (especially with the new business-friendly / anti-consumer presidency coming in), but we don’t know unless we try. That’s what most american lawsuits are: swinging wildly and hoping for a hit

[@jonsevier6087]

For the users, yes. For the content creators that leveraged affiliate links there are measurable losses. None of the creators seem to be talking about their legal pursuits though... This was straight up fraud and the directors of Honey should be personally liable for knowingly defrauding people.

[@jaystarr6571]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="464">7:44</a> Liking your own videos, huh? _I see you_

[@LlywellynOBrien]

This made me laugh pretty hard, great spot!

[@TheDCJason]

I bet the like was from the YT account of the video editor. I doubt Marques actually edits his own videos these days.

[@EldisUnwraps]

The most underrated comment here 😎

[@filterkid]

so what?

[@snowb4ll]

if u don't support urself who's gonna 🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️

[@PrestonWeight]

I hate browser extensions, most of them want full access to your whole computer and pretty much everything else, so that right there is my big red flag.

[@iMoha46]

lessons learned: don’t buy or install any sponsor promoted by any youtuber or content creator

[@Toufik-f2p]

It's more like that don't be a stupid consumer. Don't buy anything just because there are some cashback or discount. Buy things only when you need it and use cash or maybe a debit card.

[@amit.chippa]

This reminds me of the meme going viral that says, 'KZbin is taking money from brands to show the Ads and asking users to pay to stop the Ads', not a scam but money coming from both sides 😆

[@muhashames5924]

actually its kind of the same

[@Coayer]

I don't get how people can complain about that, it's not that you're paying to make the ads go away, you're paying so that they don't need to show you them.

[@basitfayaz9490]

@@muhashames5924 not the same, the difference is, they are open about it and both the people and companies know what is going on.

[@diegomazzoni5322]

@@Coayer Yeah.. like someone coming to your store and telling you to give them 25% of your income to protect your store: you're not paying them to protect your store, you're paying so they won't set it on fire. And before you go any further: You Tube could just make money with banners and ads like any other site, but decided to specifically FORCE them on you inside videos so they can milk on both sides.

[@llukem]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="406">6:46</a> Except Linus who did and ended their partnership with Honey over it but really didn't say much of anything to anyone, rather continuing to let fellow creators get sucked into this scam as Honey grew and grew in popularity among their viewers. I think the LTT team should have said or done something at least to warn other creators, when they had knowledge that it was going on. “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" moment here. Least MegaLag finally broke the news.

[@lilpeach101]

Ltt stopped because back then it was being shouted off the rooftops on twitter. It wasn't their story nor their responsibility to echo it. Now the internet has the memory of a goldfish and is making them out to be some boogeyman.

[@maxisenberg9093]

​@@lilpeach101Linus had a track record of being super shady lol

[@asion09]

@@lilpeach101 what're you talking about? If LTT was the only influencer who heard about it then it definitely wasn't being "shouted from the rooftops" on Twitter and LTT should've at least talked to other big creators about it if they didn't want to make a public statement

[@lilpeach101]

@@asion09 Right. That is because only ltt knowing about the affiliate ripping back then is made up. Even in the megalag video you see questions on the Ltt forum asking ltt if they knew about it, because it was public information back then already. In their latest podcast they show a tweet from another youtuber which was what alerted them to it at the time.

[@lordvader199]

Consumerism in the age of the internet continues to teach us, at least those of us who are paying attention: If it's FREE to you, then you are not their customer.

[@davidshardlow4369]

Marques.. this is a textbook description of enshitification.. thank you for making this clear.. Honey deinstalled ✅ Already avoided PayPal!

[@TROLLGASM101]

these mfs work hard to tell me why its bad for me that they lost their kickback.. couldnt care less

[@briandugan4054]

They didn't take the time to ask questions or do any research. They only saw the check. They all suck

[@hortobello1160]

it wasn't brains that got them there... i can assure you that! :P (almost a margin call quote) but meanwhile you can be absolutely sure that everything that a fool like mr. beast promotes is either a scam or just trash!

[@briandugan4054]

@@hortobello1160 margin call is a solid movie.

[@leultagonafer8446]

MKBHD 🔥 Happy New Year, from Ethiopia 🇪🇹

[@lazymagic]

This has been one of your most interesting videos thank you. I was an early adopter of Honey and realised fairly quickly it was a scam. I mean - it’s PayPal.

[@Noob_FPS]

So basically they called themselves Honey, but were actually full of Vinegar... got it!

[@blasiankxng]

no, it's because their extension is a honey pot for data

[@joeygarcia4277]

They were a Honey Trap

[@Noob_FPS]

@@blasiankxng That also works!

[@TR-yo9wq]

We're partners in real estate and partners in life..

[@kairo9985]

that doesn't work cuz vinegar is good

[@TheInternetHelpdeskPlays]

Pirate Software spoke about creators stopped doing affiliate links over the last few years because income dropped off, I wonder if this is why and (as long as no one else is doing this) if we will see more referral codes in future.

[@CalamarCat]

Do you know what video he talked about that in? I've been wondering if they'd seen a drop off, would love to see his take

[@TheInternetHelpdeskPlays]

@CalamarCat it was on a stream, but there's a channel called PirateMeatball that cut it in to its own video, won't post a link but you can search it up easily, it's one of the newest ones.

[@CalamarCat]

@@TheInternetHelpdeskPlays Thanks!

[@charlesthistlethwaite]

Who is coordinating the class-action suit against Honey's deceptive actions? Or is this going to be prosecuted by a coalition of state attorney generals?

[@bannnnner]

I mean...Taking the cut while using their browser extension and their coupon codes is hardly a scam. These KZbinr are up in arms because theyre cut out the equation... but it seems just cut throat business to me. And engaging with companies as what coupons not to push is their perogative, it just makes Honey a worse product, not a scam. Videos like this will destroy the company and put people out of a job. Using language like scam needs to be used carefully and I don't think he's right here

[@yippeekyay]

​@@bannnnner so saying one thing to consumers (we will get you the best code) and withholding codes from them because they do a deal with the website isn't a scam then what is?

[@thecomposerchanginggames5250]

​@bannnnner At a fundamental minimum, it's false marketing. Telling your customers you will provide something while not providing it is false marketing. Affiliate links are something that most people really don't care about, but it could be seen as stealing business from creators. And finally, the original honey expose uploader hinted at even worse practices that he had found evidences of, including illegally selling personal data and exploiting companies with unintentional coupon codes. That's what the update video is supposed to be about.

[@msaadmin123]

The consumers are getting discounts and saving money, they exaggerated promotion with their "the best deal" but it's just marketing, puffery. Honey didn't directly "scam" any party, it's like suing a company for marketing the product as "the best gaming mouse" or "the best prices" webstores. As for the creator's affiliates it's also not a direct harm in a legal way, just like adblocking companies can't be proven to do damages to creators in court, can't imagine that happening...

[@sw33tialucard]

Harvey Specter bro

[@Lumina.Necreată]

Some people don't understand that in 2018/19 EVERY SINGLE AD was about honey

[@albertlwj]

"nobody knew of it" because nobody cared to find out what exactly honey does. all they think is "hey they're giving me money, i'll do it!" If Honey wasn't removing the creators' affliate code, but just having secret deals with retailers, these creators wouldn't even care. They'd just say "oh they're allowed to conduct business however they choose"

[@joesligo1516]

I work in the advertising technology industry and the affiliate code replacing they are doing may very likely be tantamount to actual affiliate fraud.

[@torretacosmica]

nah

[@Alvin853]

I'm pretty sure most countries, the US being one of them, requires affiliate links to be properly labeled as such. Since the buttons in the Honey app were basically affiliate links, and not labeled at all, they could have a huge problem with the FTC. Everything else is extremely scummy, but likely not breaking any laws.