Cookie Stuffing: The Black Hat Affiliate Fraud Tactic That's So Lucrative Even Bill Gates' Daughter Can't Resist
And why you shouldn't partake
Bill Gates’ 23-year-old daughter Pheobe Gates just got caught cookie stuffing, a crime that has a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
She owns a company called Phia, which operates a browser extension that automatically applies discounts when customers shop at online stores. A recent report from Bloomberg accused Phia of fraudulently stuffing cookies as a way of stealing affiliate commissions.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because it’s basically the same concept as Honey (owned by PayPal), another browser extension that automatically applies discounts at checkout and was also stuffing cookies.
It’s a serious problem with these companies. They’re all fraudulent, if any of them aren’t it’s because the fraud hasn’t been uncovered yet.
Don’t worry about Pheobe. She’s a rich nepo baby so there’s no way she’ll do time.
But what exactly did she do and why is it illegal?