The daughter of a billionaire who has made vast sums, likely billions, also during covid by fraud, murder and lies has been accused of using fake cookies to steal the commissions owed to other companies.
Youngest daughter, Phoebe Gates, fresh from college, e ngaged in fraud very early having just set up her shopping start up.
Phoebe Gates seems to be consumed the same radical greed and foolish arrogance of her father in thinking she would never be caught "cookie stuffie"
Her reputation is now ruined at only 23 years and I hope she is sued for her fraud like other crooks.
From media
Phia, the shopping startup co-founded by Bill Gates' daughter Phoebe Gates and climate activist Sophia Kianni, is facing serious allegations of 'cookie stuffing' - a deceptive practice that let the company pocket affiliate commissions on purchases it never actually influenced. The accusations, detailed in a Bloomberg investigation, raise questions about the 18-month-old startup's business practices and could shake confidence in the celebrity-backed venture that's been positioning itself as a curated shopping platform.
Phia is in hot water. The shopping startup co-founded by Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni stands accused of cookie stuffing, a sketchy affiliate marketing tactic that basically amounts to stealing credit for sales you didn't earn. According to a Bloomberg investigation, the company used this practice to rack up commissions on purchases it had nothing to do with.
Here's how cookie stuffing works: Instead of earning affiliate fees the honest way - by genuinely influencing a customer's purchase decision - the accused party secretly plants tracking cookies on users' browsers. When those users later buy something from a retailer, the stuffed cookie claims credit, overriding any legitimate affiliate who actually drove the sale. It's like cutting in line at the last second to grab a prize someone else earned.
For Phia, a platform that launched in 2024 with the promise of curated shopping recommendations, these allegations are particularly damaging. The startup traded heavily on the credibility of its founders - Gates, daughter of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and Kianni, a prominent climate activist who founded Climate Cardinals. That pedigree helped Phia attract attention in a crowded e-commerce space where trust is everything.
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Cookie stuffing isn't just unethical - it can violate terms of service with affiliate networks and potentially run afoul of consumer protection laws.
What makes this especially messy is that cookie stuffing hurts multiple parties. Legitimate affiliates - bloggers, content creators, comparison sites - lose commissions they rightfully earned. Retailers end up paying for customer acquisitions they didn't actually get. And consumers have tracking cookies planted on their devices without consent, raising privacy concerns on top of the fraud issues.
https://www.techbuzz.ai/articles/phia-caught-cookie-stuffing-for-fake-affiliate-earnings
The shopping startup Phia, co-founded by billionaire Bill Gates' daughter Phoebe Gates and her partner Sophia Kianni, has become the center of a serious controversy. According to an investigation by Bloomberg, the platform is accused of using a dishonest method known as "cookie stuffing." This technique may have allowed the startup to illegally collect commissions on sales it did not actually facilitate. This was reported by Techcrunch.com reports.
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Unfair competition and the "cookie stuffing" mechanism
The investigation revealed that even if a user visited an online store site on their own or through another platform, Phia secretly opened a new page in the background. During the payment process, the program deleted the referral codes of other partners and replaced them with its own. As a result, the reward for the purchase went to Phia's account instead of the actual referrer.
After this incident was exposed, one of the largest affiliate platforms, Impact.com, stopped working with Phia and removed it from the system. It is worth noting that such practices have caused disputes between major companies before. For example, the PayPal-owned service Honey is currently being sued over similar allegations.
In a comment to Bloomberg, Phia representatives stated that the problem had been identified and all necessary measures had been taken to resolve it. Although a follow-up investigation by the publication confirmed that the error had been corrected, it is currently unknown whether the startup's partners and major retailers are satisfied with this "fix."
At a time when online shopping and cashback services are becoming popular in Uzbekistan, such technological frauds are bringing the issue of digital ethics to the forefront of the international market. So far, Phia's management and Phoebe Gates have refrained from providing additional official statements regarding this situation.
https://zamin.uz/en/technology/211754-phia-startup-co-founded-by-bill-gates-daughter-accused-of-fraud.html
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