Bill Gates’s nepo-daughter Phoebe is accused of breaking platform policies with new shopping app that’s said to have used ‘FAKE’ clicks to make money
Phia, a price-comparison shopping app co-founded by Phoebe Gates in April 2025, was investigated by Bloomberg and security researchers who discovered it was automatically inserting its own referral codes into retail checkout pages without user knowledge. This enabled Phia to claim affiliate commissions on sales it had not actually driven, a technique known as 'cookie stuffing' or attribution fraud that is widely prohibited by affiliate networks.
Impact.com, a major affiliate network partnering with Phia, suspended the company's account after uncovering the policy violations. Phia's team acknowledged the issue stemmed from code introduced in December and stated they had resolved it overnight upon notification. Independent verification in July confirmed the extension had ceased the fraudulent click-claiming behavior.
- Phoebe Gates's shopping app Phia was found automatically injecting affiliate codes during checkout to fraudulently claim sales commissions it didn't earn—a practice known as 'cookie stuffing'
- Affiliate partner Impact.com suspended Phia's account; the company said it identified and fixed the bug within 24 hours of discovery
- The practice violates standard affiliate platform policies; researchers later confirmed the fraudulent behavior had stopped