Phoebe Gates’ Shopping App Reportedly Took Credit for Sales It Didn’t Drive

Another day, another tech startup exposed for deceptive practices, except this time, the founder has one of the most recognizable last names on the planet. Phoebe Gates, daughter of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, launched a shopping assistant app called Phia with all the usual bells and whistles: AI-powered price comparisons, discount code hunting, and promises of saving users money. But a bombshell investigation from Bloomberg has revealed that Phia is not just another innocent browser extension; it is essentially a clone of Honey, the app currently drowning in class action lawsuits for the same fraudulent tactics.

Here is the short version of what Bloomberg uncovered: Phia’s browser extension engages in something called “cookie-stuffing.” That means that when you are checking out on a retail website, Phia silently opens a background tab, without your knowledge or consent, and injects its own referral code, overriding legitimate affiliate links from other publishers. So if you clicked on a link from a content creator or a site like Wirecutter, that creator gets nothing. Instead, Phia steals the commission. And it is happening across major affiliate networks like Impact.com, CJ Affiliate, Rakuten, and Awin, all of which explicitly prohibit this practice in their terms of service.

This is fraud with a billionaire pedigree and a fresh coat of AI paint. And the fact that Phoebe Gates thought she could get away with it, or did not care if she did, tells you everything you need to know about the rules that apply to the ultra-wealthy.

Bloomberg tested the Phia mobile browser extension across more than 50 websites and found that during the checkout process, Phia opened a background tab without user interaction and injected its own referral code that overrode legitimate referrals from other publishers. Phia utilizes the cookie-stuffing tactic – silently adding a tracking code to the retailer’s web address. Bloomberg found that clicking on a link to Nordstrom from a Wirecutter article triggered a background tab that replaced the Wirecutter affiliate link with Phia’s. This tactic is prohibited by each of the major affiliate networks’ terms of service.

Bloomberg

The Billionaire Bubble

This is fraud with a billionaire pedigree and a fresh coat of “AI” paint. Because, of course, slapping “AI” on something is apparently enough to attract investors who should frankly know better.

The “AI” label is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. It has become a marketing buzzword to the point where it is losing its effectiveness. Investors might love to see it, but users have AI fatigue. And when you are using it to disguise a fraudulent business model, you are not just fooling investors; you are actively harming the creators and small businesses who rely on affiliate income.

The timing is also wild. Honey is already in legal hot water for this exact practice. They are facing a class action lawsuit from content creators whose affiliate links they override, and somehow Phia thought, “You know what? Let us do the same thing but make it worse.” And they wonder why people are angry.

What also frustrates me is the lack of accountability. If this were anyone else, anyone without the Gates name, without the Stanford pedigree, without the billionaire father, they would be facing serious consequences. But because it is Phoebe Gates, there is a sense that she might just get away with it. Maybe Bill fronts some cash to the right campaign. Maybe the justice system, full of people who do not understand the internet, lets her off with a slap on the wrist. Meanwhile, the creators who lost commission are left with nothing.

And honestly, is anyone surprised? Greed is genetic, I guess. The Gates family built Microsoft through questionable business practices, and now the next generation is continuing the tradition. Bill might say he is only leaving his kids $10 million each, but they are clearly finding other ways to fund that lifestyle.

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Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, this is not about innovation. This is about wealth, power, and the complete absence of accountability. Phoebe Gates and her co-founders knew exactly what they were doing. They knew Honey was facing legal action. They knew this was fraud. So did they just assume they would not get caught, or that if they did, they would get away with it?

I hope the creators who were harmed by this get the justice they deserve. I hope the investors who enabled this face consequences. But given the state of the justice system and the power dynamics at play, I am not holding my breath. Some people are just too rich to fail. And that is the part that really sucks.