Chrome Add-On Caught Stealing Amazon Commissions

A Chrome extension marketed to hide sponsored Amazon ads was found to secretly hijack Amazon affiliate links by replacing or appending the developer’s affiliate tag (10xprofit-20), diverting commissions. Socket researchers link this behavior to a coordinated network of at least 29 extensions targeting major e-commerce sites; the extensions use content scripts and MutationObservers to persistently rewrite URLs. The report details the abuse, cites Chrome Web Store policy violations, and recommends uninstalling malicious extensions, enforcing allowlisting, monitoring URL-modifying extensions, and coordinating with platforms and affiliate networks to remediate the activity.