As Hype House announces its move to TV with an upcoming series titled The Hype Life, members of the TikTok collective have been accused of scamming their fans with a new merch promotion.

On Tuesday (August 11), the LA collective dropped their new bedazzled Hype Chain necklace with co-founder Thomas Petrou advertising the necklace on Instagram as “free”. The merch site also claims that the chains are worth $100 and fans are allowed one chain per order – though “if you want multiple free chains, make multiple orders”.

While influencers can technically charge whatever they want for their merch, it’s not clear how the $100 price was determined. Fans also took to Twitter to point out the unusually high shipping price.

“This is the Free + shipping scheme where the product costs wholesale @ $1.50 and they charge for it in the shipping SO IT NOT FREE!!” YouTuber Vice Versa said in a tweet, adding: “Oldest ecom game in the book.”

Twitter user @DefNoodles pointed out that when the same $20 shipping cost was applied to different mailing addresses in Miami, NYC, a “mailing chain of similar weight can cost as low as $3.80, according to USPS”.

“The thing that bothers me about this hype house chain scam is that Thomas knows the hype house has a younger audience, so he knew they’d buy into the whole ‘it’s free’ scenario,” user @frenchxxy added. “He’s literally manipulating them. Sketchy as hell if u ask me.”

If you think that’s mad, read this anonymous LA influencer’s absolutely deranged PA job description – you’re welcome.