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.