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The Honey extension scam. Is PayPal trying to scam consumers and content creators?

Time created: 1/5/2026 Updated: 1/5/2025

Backbround

The "Honey extension fraud series" is a series made by MegaLag on YouTube and Patreon. This blog post is still under construction.

What is Honey?

Honey is a browser extension that "gives you" discount codes. The founder and co-funder were Ryan Hudson and George Ruan, where later they sold the brand to PayPal. Those 2 people created Honey to find big discount codes. Sounds innocent, right? Nope. They are scamming consumers and content creators. Stealing money that was supposed to give to creators.

How does it work?

Example 1: No Honey.

Let's say you're in an electronics shop, buying a new TV or maybe a computer. The employee is running down though the opcions and you find what you want. The employee gives you a referral card and when you arrive at the checkout, the clerk knows who to give the comission.

Example 2: With Honey

So, it's the same as example 1, but when you get at the checkout, a salesman goes to you and asks: Do you want to see if I have any discounts? You answer yes. The salesman snatches the referral card from the clerk's hand and goes to look if there's any discount. It doesn't matter if it finds any or none, but the salesman gives his referral card instead of the employee's. It's like stealing money from creators but nobody realizes.

Obiously, this action is illegal but PayPal is not doing anything about it.