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Honey Is The Most Predatory Influencer Scam Of All Time

The Honey trap explained.

Jano le Roux
The Startup
6 min readJan 3, 2025

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Honey’s icon on Chrome browser.
Screenshot by author

Everyone hates a sleazy salesperson.

The Joe Goldbergs of the online world. The folks who say, “It’s literally free money!” The ones whose lines are as choreographed as a K-pop routine — but way less fun.

I’m not a government agent. I’m not an ethical-hacking guru. I’m just a person who got sick of hearing about this “free” browser extension that supposedly saves you a fortune — Honey — yet no one was talking about its suspicious business model.

So I did what any binge-obsessed investigative documentary viewer would do: I went deep. Real deep. And trust me, after you see what’s hiding under Honey’s sweet veneer, you’ll never look at “Install for FREE!” the same way again.

The biggest influencer scam you never saw coming

We all have our favorite influencers — some on YouTube, some who mention Apple or Starlink in every other sentence, some who wax poetic about EcoFlow battery stations. They talk about their gear, unbox a new Apple gadget, or show off how EcoFlow powers their entire weekend camping trip.

They share affiliate links. You click, buy, and they get a little thank-you cut. That’s fair — content creators gotta eat.

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The Startup
The Startup

Published in The Startup

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Jano le Roux
Jano le Roux

Written by Jano le Roux

An award-winning marketing consultant who helps high-growth brands craft marketing that doesn’t feel like marketing. Open to help—jano@likeflare.com—Join me ⤵️

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