PayPal Honey is a very popular browser extension that promises users the best deals on e-shopping. Shortly before you check out, the tool searches the Internet for valid voucher codes and theoretically shows you all of them. Sounds too good to be true, right? That’s because it is. A new investigation has revealed how the Honey extension actually works, and it appears to be cheating both the developers who promote it and the customers who rely on the discounts.

YouTube channel MegaLag investigated how PayPal Honey works behind the scenes and uncovered the malicious activities the company carries out to harm everyone involved. Many well-known YouTubers, bloggers and other YouTubers have been promoting the browser extension on their platforms for years. Little do they know that Honey has been stealing their affiliate revenue this entire time.

When a customer lets Honey search for coupons during checkout, the service silently deletes the existing affiliate cookies and inserts its own. This predatory behavior allows PayPal Inc. to steal the commission – even though the developers are actually directing users to the selected products. Simply put, YouTubers have been promoting a tool all along that is stealing from them.

Honey’s impact extends beyond its creators; The service also negatively affects you – the user. While the extension promises to find the best deals online, it sometimes intentionally hides them from you. When a merchant signs up for Honey’s (insignificant) cashback program, they gain full control over the coupons presented through the extension. This allows sellers to hide better discounts shared publicly on the internet from Honey users.

Due to blind trust, many customers don’t bother to search on the internet because they believe Honey will provide honest results. So they end up missing out on the most beneficial promotions offered elsewhere and opting for the smaller ones offered by the fraudulent extension.