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10/07/2013

FlexKom: the new Lyoness?




As more and more of our readers understand and accept that Lyoness is a pernicious lie, designed to scam millions of consumers and small and medium sized enterprises out of billions of euros, we are asked with an increased frequency what we think of other 'companies', operating similar 'business models'.

From the very start of the Complaint Centre, we have decided that our focus lays primarily on Lyoness. Whilst acknowledging that there is a long list of similar frauds operated at this time (usually with a differing disguise), we also acknowledge that others, with more experience and more knowledge on the subject, are better suited to provide a comprehensive overview of this type of scam. Therefore, for a full overview of the phenomenon of income opportunity racketeering, we would like to refer our readers to the excellent Blog of Mr David Brear.

However, every now and then a scam pops up and catches our attention, because it is just so darn similar to Lyoness. FlexKom is such a scam.

We have reported earlier that we expect the racketeers behind Lyoness to come up with a new front for their never-ending scam, much in the way like they have dealt with the problems faced earlier by GTS and Galvagin, which eventually produced Lyoness. From that perspective, we are inclined to investigate and report about scams that operate in a freakishly similar manner as Lyoness, with a near-identical disguise to cover up the fraud.

More and more readers have recently brought FlexKom to our attention, and have directed us to on-going debates on various internet fora (2, 3, etc), as well as social media, about FlexKom. For the readers who are unfamiliar with this name, we will provide a brief introduction of the 'company' below.




FlexKom is a 'company' founded, allegedly, in 2010, by either Cengiz Ehliz and/or Asker Sakinmaz, which are both presented as current CEO of the 'company', most probably because they are supposed to represent different divisions of the 'company'. It claims to be some sort of a franchise provider, supplying its partners (which pay about 1500 euros for a 'gold package') with the right to enrol shops into the network, sell them the special FlexKom machines (for about 400 euros), which functions as a reader for the FlexKom cards. The enrolled shops then have the right to issue FlexKom cards to their customers, with the promise that the cardholders will get discounts on their purchases at FlexKom-affiliated shops, and the shops are promised a percentage in commission over the purchases made by the cardholders at every FlexKom-affiliated company. Naturally, the earnings exponentially increase as soon as new partners and shops are brought in.




FlexKom, founded by people with a seemingly Turkish background, chose Turkey as its 'test-market', to see whether the system would function the way it was expected to. According to FlexKom, it did (which is why a long list of countries have now been 'opened' by FlexKom; i.e. FlexKom partners can now be signed up there). According to the Turkish partners, media and authorities, it did not.




We found it quite interesting to see that so much vagueness exists about this 'company', which self-reports to be an extremely reliable business partner. For instance, we have seen claims that this 'company' operated an MLM-system, as well as fanatical debates where FlexKom denies to have anything to do with MLM. The company appears to be Turkish, but is most often claimed to be from Germany - yet is registered in Switzerland. Also, many of the national divisions, presented as if they were incorporated and registered at the local chambers of commerce, are not findable in the company registers of these local chambers of commerce.

Both Cengiz Ehliz and Asker Sakinmaz are not officially attached to the Swiss corporation registered under the name 'FlexKom International Holding AG'. Instead, the two names currently attached to this holding (as managers and founders) are Hasan Süslu and Guido Gmür. About Süslu, nothing much is publicly available. About Gmür, however, one can find a little bit more. According to Moneyhouse, Gmür has worked for about 13 companies, amongst which is First Tax AG, registered on the same address as the FlexKom headquarters. Observant readers may remember that this is the company of which Lyoness co-founder and tax and bankruptcy expert Iwan J. Ackermann is the co-founder and CEO.

As we have argued earlier, the people behind Lyoness have previously been responsible for organising GTS (Erin Trade) and Galvagin - at least - and apparently managed to get away with running those scams by setting up shell corporations in various countries and moving assets around until they were no longer traceable for anyone looking for them. As it seems, this is the way they have managed to found Lyoness without anyone frowning upon the intentions of the Lyoness founders.

We understand that we should be cautious in what we write here, as the exact details and sequence of events are difficult to mimic, mainly due to the lack of information publicly available. However, it does look an awful lot like the same people that managed to transfer Galvagin into Lyoness, and continue their scam under a different name, are now in the process of doing the same for FlexKom. It definitely looks like FlexKom being the long-awaited successor of Lyoness, through which the people behind Lyoness can continue to the scam the world. If not, FlexKom is an extremely similar copy (again, there is 'cash back', the higher ranked adherents become first 'leaders' and then member of the 'President's Team', etc.) of the Lyoness racket and the people interested in running the FlexKom scam at least appear to have hired the same people to cover up their fraud.


41 comments:

  1. One bit of information here that is very important is that Asker (the founder of FlexKom) was a Director of Lyoness. Your comment about it being an exit plan for Hubert (Lyoness) is a very interesting idea. If your business is falling to bits, why not try and get people to jump into a new idea that appears to be better and is owned by someone else! When really you own it!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for your comment Anonymous. Indeed, it all makes perfect sense. We would be very happy and grateful if you could provide us with some sort of proof that (one of) the founder(s) of FlexKom was a director of Lyoness.

      Thanks,

      Complaint Centre Lyoness

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  2. It all seem like a scam, just getting the money out of the retailer, it is so obvious, and yes they are mainly self acclaimed! no third party sources, although it seems that there is a lot of info on the net it is very vague, just the same thing on various websites most of which are the networkers. I wouldnt give them a single penny of my hard earned cash.

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    Replies
    1. That is a very wise decision, Anonymous. We hope many people will follow your informed choice and stay away from this racket.

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  3. FlexKom have apparently been accredited by EBCON (http://www.ebcon.net/), not to be confused with EBCON (http://en.ebcon-club.eu/) Their president Stefan Kletsch (http://www.ebcon.net/praesident/praesident.html) awarded them on stage.
    But who are EBCON? According to alexa.com they get almost zero web traffic, despite apparently being a pan-European consumer advocacy body ...

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  4. Thanks for your comment.

    The EBCON certification indeed seems valueless, much like the certificates Lyoness is holding (although those were at least issued by somewhat 'impressive' agencies. We have also received an anonymous tip stating that FlexKom claims to hold a certificate of the European Consumer Centre, but the ECC does not issue any type of certification and has never looked at FlexKom.

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  5. And EBCON.net was set-up in 2010 - same year as Flexkom. Coincidence?.....

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    Replies
    1. We don't know about that. Yet, looking at the EBCON website, it almost seems too silly and amateurish to be set up by FlexKom as a proof of its credibility. We wouldn't dream of ruling out the possibility though.

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    2. Looks like Ebcon was set up in 2007 on their website

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    3. Be that as it may, the whole 'EBCON' certification seems to be a sham with no actual value in the real world - even less valuable than the ridiculous certification Lyoness has paraded around.

      EBCON seems to be FlexKom's excuse to get away with the ridiculous claim (apparently uttered at FlexKom meeting) that they have received certification from the European Consumer Centre - which they haven't.

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  6. Ebcom went bankrupt in 2009!
    http://www.moneyhouse.ch/en/u/ebcon_europaische_verbraucher_beratung_ag_CH-020.3.914.497-1.htm

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    Replies
    1. the insurance agency by the same abbreviation went into liquidation in 2007 and was removed from the register in 2009.

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  7. Flexkom is a big fake and built up many websites to make people believe in their lies
    Have a look at this e-business web site supposed to build a link between real and on line business
    http://shop.flexkom.com/, no updates for months...
    And what about the old offer for Flex Holiday
    http://holiday.flexkom.com/
    This offer has changed to this
    http://flexholiday.flexkom.com/
    If you look at this new offer for FlexHoliday you will realise that it's just a free affiliation program that FlexKom people put on the web whitout even changing the layout taken from this web site http://www.specials.de/

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  8. The FlexKom buzz has hit the US and a lot of people are getting ready to join and put $2,200 US into buying a license. I have two distinct problems with all of this and you should too.

    1. The fact they collect your money first and tell you it will be several months before anything happens should cause you to see red flags. This delay tactic (their 3 phase approach) would allow them to collect millions of dollars in all of the countries they are moving into before anyone would realize there is a problem. Think about this. Look at the timing of their Phase I for Germany and the UK and USA. They will have collected all of the upfront money before any of these countries roll into Phase III which is putting terminals in retailer's shops.

    2. Where is the infrastructure to support all of this? I haven't seen a single person ask this question. If this system was real and it was being postured to support millions of transactions daily worldwide wouldn't you (if you owned FlexKom) be touting your system as robust, secure, redundant, reliable, etc.? I haven't seen one mention of the technology behind the magic and nobody seems to be asking. Furthermore, where are the people who are employed by FlexKom to manage this magical system? I can't find any. And doesn't it seem the company would be actively recruiting people for all of this? I can't find a single shred of evidence that FlexKom is hiring anywhere in the world - only recruiting marketing people who have to pay to join.

    Can anyone provide evidence to the contrary?

    Thank you!

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  9. Thank you so much for sharing this helpful information. I am tired of being targeted by scammers through good friends to get my hard own money. This is an eye opening. Congratulations on your blog!!!

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  10. Thanks for your comment, we are glad to be of help!

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  11. This is so hilarious, this company is a complete fake, absolutely nothing to independently verify their claims apart from ebcon!! which even if it exists wont mean anything in real terms, any company can have registrations, patents, web directory listings etc etc, but it never means that because you have a little buzz about yourself/company which in this case is completely self created that you are a billion dollar worth company, I have a pathetic email from some erwin fally a rep for so called flexkom claims they have 2-3 billion cash available and they inherited this through previous businesses of course no proof was provided, in fact no evidence whatsoever can be found to verify anything, its totally nonsense. I can post the copy of the email for you guys but let me tell you guys its so pathetic that you will fall of your chair laughing!!!

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    1. Obviously, we would love to see that email (as the billions they claim to have may very well be coming from Lyoness, Galvagin, GTS, etc.). We would immensely appreciate it if you could post a copy of the email.

      Also, if you would want to communicate with us in private, please leave your email address in a separate comment - it will not be published.

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    2. Thanks, Anonymous, for sending us the email. Here it is (we removed the contact details from it).

      "Hi guys as promised, please see below email from flexkom employee sent to me recently, check his footer!!! awesome!

      -----

      From: Erwin Fally
      Sent: Sat 8/17/13 2:35 AM
      To: *********************

      Dear Sir

      I have recieved your email in good order, and i can very well understand your NEGATIVE reaction, since Flexkom sounds much to good to be true, therefore it can NOT BE TRUE.

      BUT SINCE WE ARE THE ONLY COMPANY IN THE WHOLE WORLD, THAT YOU CAN VISIT AND EVEN SEE EVERYTHING OPPERATIONAL EVEN LOOK INTO ALL THE PATENTS AND OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS WITH YOUR ADVISER OR LAWYER WITHOUT HAVING TO PAY A REGISTRATION UPFRONT.
      THEREFOIRE I AND WE DO NOT UNDERSTAND YOUR ATTITUDE, UNLESS YOU CONSIDER US A COMPETITOR OF YOUR BUSINESS OR NETWORK OR MLM, ONLY THEN WE UNDERSTAND YOU EXTREMELY WELL, SINCE THEN WE ARE EXACTLY THAT, A VERY SERIOUS COMPETITOR, WITH WAY-OVER 2, NEARLY 3 BILLION US $ CASH BACKUP AT OUR DISPOSAL.

      And since for shure you where not shown the in REAL-TIME World-wide interactive growth map of the Flexkom website, because this you can control, sheckout instantly if it is true or not, and since it is in REAL-TIME, and pinpoints acurately with house number, so you can track every effective result down emmediatly with this facility-tool that Flexkom provides for everyone, since it is NOT only for the Flexkom licence holder, but also for the Flexkom the shop or business owner, and even for the World-wide population, consumer as a facility to track every Flexkom agent and or shop-business owner down and to be guided to him with a GPS system on your smart-phone especially made adapted for that purpose.

      ALSO since we are already LIVE in the shops in Austria, effectively with our 3e generation developed Terminal MADE IN GERMANY, it is EASY for you to track a shop on our website with the above explained tool-facility and call one of these shops and ask if Flexkom is an air-castle or not, therefore you do NOT have to become upset, like your email shows, only do some deep research and you will cool down rapidly, since Flexkom is not there to upset anyone, NOT even the competition, since there isn't any, since we are a BLUE-OCEAN COMPANY, which you can easely find online and read about it to.

      Also, we launch face one TO-DAY all over the USA from our head-office for the USA in Nevada-Arizona, wich is open for the public to visit, and so are all our other World-wide facilities, Flexkom has NO SECRETS, so you are even MOST WELCOME to visit our WORLD-OFFICE in Switserland, wich is a nice castle at Lake Constants, so you could make a nice trip with your family there and visit us physically and have a nice holliday there.

      The address is: Burgstrase 8 in 8280 Kreuzlingen Swiss.

      Every month we arange a group of interested people to visit flexkom HQ before any registration and or payment, and you are most welcome to join us.

      ALSO Flexkom Terminals wil effectively launch into the shops in the UK, Belgium, Holland, Ireland, Scotland, Switserland, France, Germany, Macedonia and Luxemburg in November, so your patience will not be tempted for much longer than that, to see it all effectively working in the local shops as the Flexkom company promised, so very soon it will happen in your World, environment to see for yourself, so NO reason for you to trye to upset others now, so soon for everybody to see it opperational and make yourself look like a backward-idiot towords them.

      Hope this will ease your mindset, and have you make a rational descision if Flexkom is something for you to visit or not.

      If so, we are at you service to translate and back you up to support you to be as financially succesfull as we here already are with our existing previous businesses, inherited fortune and or with Flexkome alone.

      Hope to meet you soon in Kreuzlingen swiss at Flexkom HQ.

      Kind regards,

      Erwin Fally

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    3. And the mentioned footer:

      ----

      footer:

      Kind regards,

      Erwin Fally,
      you can cheque me out to if you want for i have no secrets, here is one of many of my cash payed for and morgage free property's, but here i am most often at the moment.
      Address:****, the most expensive road in the most rich area of the whole of Belgium and the best area to live anywhere in the World is the hamlet of **** and won the LivCom-Award for the most liveable municipality in the world, wich is situated on the border of two villages, ****: and since time immemorial was and still is the preferred Continental hub of the Noble Britisch upper class and the London Bisshops-Avenue occupents who come here to decide what to do with the World since it is a Builderberg preferred area and also to watch the POLO World championship here every year with our Royals and nobles from all over the World.

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  12. and they have now entered the Kenyan market.
    Thanks God I have this handy information. they will not get a single of my penny

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    1. Glad to be of help, and congratulations on your wise decision not to invest any money into this!

      We indeed saw that the Kenyan press is picking up on the whole FlexKom scam too (albeit by copy pasting various fragments from our Blog):

      http://www.nairobiexposed.com/2013/08/10/flexikom-now-in-kenya-scam-or-legitimate/

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  13. For those who have been scammed, I highly encourage each and every one of you to report your experiences here: http://www.econsumer.gov/

    A concerted effort to report the scam will most expeditiously stop the scammers in their tracks, and hopefully bring with it a jail sentence!

    We need to start caring more about people than how to earn a fast dollar from international scams.

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  14. Thank God for the internet! We just spent an hour with two very plausible gents here in the UK who were introduced via an attendee at an FSB event and another business networking event.

    On the face of it the proposition seemed reasonable, and not unlike a variety of other 'Save the UK High Street' loyalty card schemes being spoken about on TV news programmes (so good for UK retailers).

    When asked their USP over say Google+ local or Foursquare (given they've now progressed from cards, card machines and terminals to up to date Smartphone Apps, they too had very plausible answers.

    They were very open about the MLM way FlexKom operate, as a means of "getting to market" before Google!! And this "urgency" is given as the reason why they need to get Franchiees to sign up fast (and of course part5 with their money fast).

    I'm sure many, many innocent people will loose money here and that's why I say "thank God for the the internet". I few years ago doing "Due Diligence" on companies like this would have been difficult, if not impossible. But now 5 mins Googling "Have you heard of Flexkom or Flexkom reviews", found a number of worrying blog comments and this comprehensive and balanced blog.

    So spread the word and hopefully save more innocent people from being scammed!

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  15. What a complete bogus letter, how do people get fooled to believe this nonsense despite having all the resources available to you at your fingertips... STAY AWAY

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    1. People believe what they want and need to believe. The problem is that the names of these 'companies' are witheld until an upline is present, or the prospect attends a big recruitment meeting, where the levels of exercised psychological pressure and manipulation are amazingly high. So when these people first hear of Lyoness, FlexKom, etc., they have already been influenced by the racketeers, which makes them perceive the information they may find online (if they ignore the 'friendly advice' of the racketeers not to look up the company) in a very different manner.

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  16. Thank you for the info.Question: Has anyone heard or know if any of the Shops in Turkey or any other country have been scammed?Would love to know.

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    1. In Turkey there is a large amount of people and shops extremely unhappy with FlexKom. If you speak Turkish, have a look at the website of the Turkish newspaper Zaman, and search for FlexKom there.

      If not, you can still visit the website and use Google Translate or so.

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    2. In other countries they are just beginning, complaints will come soon enough.

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  17. We have in Holland 4 blogs on www.wouterhol.nl. Almost 1.500 reactions in 2 months!

    1. The pyramid game of Flexkom?
    2. Waiting for a reaction of Flexkom
    3. In Turkey game over for Flexkom
    4. The ICT leak at Flexkom

    This company with all teir CEO's and COO's is ONE BIG BIG JOKE - everything is fake. You realy can not take them serious with all FAKE awards, lies and of course the genial MFDN concept. We are waiting with a big smile for the famous Fase 3 in Holland which should take place on 26.October 2013 (or is it 2014.... or 2015?)

    On one of the blogs we also published your nice mail of the famous Belgium Flexkom Country Manager Mr. Erwin Fally.

    More information about Flutkom can also on:
    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Flexkom-Scams/553709781338460




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  18. As stated above by someone- thank god for the internet! I live on Maui Hawaii, and someone is using Craigslist to try to start his "team". Funny thing is, he lives in Las Vegas Nevada in the USA- where their "USA Headquarters" are supposed to be! I can't wait to call him up in the morning, and blow him away with all of this awesome information! Thanks to all who contributed to this blog!
    Aloha!

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  19. Just another example to illustrate the complete madness of this SCAM company.

    On the Flexkom FB page you can read that they have won an astonishing famous award, this time from Trinidad & Tobago ….

    Please try not to laugh because this is a very serious matter for FK and their blind followers.

    https://www.facebook.com/Flexkom.global?bookmark_t=page

    “FlexKom International Holding was been inaugurated an Award of Excellency by the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago live during the FlexKom Country Manager Meeting in Munich Germany. Mr Anderson Goddard, National Security Officer of the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago expresses his gratitude and presented the President & Founder of FlexKom International Holding, Mr Cengiz Ehliz this award on the 3rd of September 2013.”

    The so called National Security Officer Mr. Anderson Goddard is just another FK LICENSE HOLDER , or country manager (?) in T&T.

    Conclusion: FK is giving themselves another FAKE award.

    We in Holland have already send our congratulations to Flexkom. We are also thinking to present them a special award for all the good things they have done in our country ;) 

    Footer: this Mr. Anderson is also selling imitation Prada shoes and other stuff
    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150212774806430&set=pb.596626429.-2207520000.1378739329.&type=3&theater

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  20. FlexKom America is currently charging $2,200 to sign up as a Global team member. Unfortunately, they break the law the minute they sign someone up. How? There is no actual product sold at sign up. They claim the sign up fee is paying for a back end virtual office to manage the team member's group and sales. According to the FTC, tools and training to grow the network are NOT considered consumer products for the end user/customer and thus classifying Flexkom as an illegal pyramid scheme right out of the gate. Furthermore, Flexkom claims that their one and only real product to be sold or purchased is a Digital Scanner Terminal. So, why are they selling a two day seminar and back office instead of the Digital Scanner Terminal? Because they don't have any terminals. This should cause people serious concern. If they actually have a product why not sell it at the time of sign up and be in compliance with the FTC? Why? Because they don't have the terminals and don't intend on ever getting them.. They are signing people up left and right making $2,000 a pop with the promise that the terminals will arrive and they never do. In addition, CEO of Flexkom America, Karl Roller states that they are going to cap off the sign ups at 30,000 Global team members. He is either lying now, or will break the law when he tries to cap it. Discontinuing the multi level aspect of the business after 30,000 sign ups takes away an opportunity for those at the bottom that was available to those at the top. This too is illegal. But why would Karl say they are going to cap the number of people who can join? To create an urgency for people to join now rather than wait to see a terminal that actually works. Another red flag... If Flexkom is the next big thing, who is behind it? I would like to see a list of all of the Flexkom America executive officers, with photos, bios, credentials and contact information. I can't find it. Every legitimate company has a detailed list of it's team members and their qualifications and credentials... Not Flexkom. I find this to be highly suspicious. For all those looking to join, wait until you actually see a terminal up and working in a retail store. Trust me. You can afford to wait. If it is truly a good deal now, it will be a better deal when they can prove that they are running a legitimate business.

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  21. Flexkom America claims that when you pay your $2,200 at the time of sign up, $2,000 of that money will be distributed as a $2 credit on 1,000 apps you will receive at the time of launch. The problem with is this, once you begin signing people up during pre launch you can earn your $2,200 back by signing up 5 people in the first thirty days. How do you get $2,200 back when $2,000 of each sign up fee you bring in is supposed to be applied to the 1,000 apps at launch? How can they promise this when the math doesn't work? THEY CAN DO IT BECAUSE THEY NEVER INTEND ON LAUNCHING AND GIVING AWAY APPS. It's a scam!

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    Replies
    1. You're absolutely right. Their math is not (never) correct. Flexkom is just an ordinary scam conceived by scammer Cengiz Ehliz. For naieve people: don't believe a word of what this fake company is promoting!





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  22. Hello I write from Italy, my friends have borrowed money to subscribe to Flexkom, now the license costs € 2200 for only one idea of ​​back-office.Le their meetings more and more similar to the meetings of fanatics know how religiosi.Non do to tell my friends that they are wrong.

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  23. We soon will be in November and, as far as I know, Flexkom should be launched in Belgium at least end november, begin december. No much time to wait anymore...

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    Replies
    1. Flexkom will never ever launche, not in 2013, not in 2014, not in Belgium, not in Netherlands, not in France, not in Swiss, not in USA, not in Russia, not in Italy, not in ......... Only small 'pilots' in certain places to keep the sheeps on board.

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  24. The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) Business Opportunity Rule...

    If you sell business opportunities, the FTC’s Business Opportunity Rule requires that you give potential buyers a one-page disclosure document

    http://www.business.ftc.gov/multimedia/videos/business-opportunity-rule

    http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2012/11/lostopp.shtm

    http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0065-multilevel-marketing

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  25. Do you have any information about Beepxtra? This firm is now opening up in the UK. It is run by a former Flexkom member. The scheme is roughly the same as for Lyoness and Flexkom. Membership however is free!

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