Thread: FlexKom aka Flexcom aka Weeconomy - legitimate MLM or scam ??

Originally Posted by NikSam

While all perpetrators (money movers, hosting companies, service providers) , even some respected names, will do nothing to stop servicing an obvious scam and never getting punished for that, scams will only grow under current polite legal treatment of these scams.


Spreading the awareness is most important while law cannot catch up...

Nigerian letter scams almost stopped working not because some scammers were busted but because most people know what it is when they see it in their mailbox.

Exactly. That's why I personally lean toward focusing on individuals and their previous acts.

I've stated before that I believe scammers want discussion on their product, good and even bad, because it appears to legitimize the product by creating debate. I realize some discussion is necessary to debunk it, but that should not be the focus.

I look at it like buying a stereo from a guy wearing an orange jumpsuit with numbers on the back. We COULD discuss the quality of the alleged stereo in the sealed box, OR look at the guy who is trying to sell it.

Everyone can make a mistake ONCE, after that, they know MLM is not a money maker in the traditional sense of selling product. They then become a scammer or at best a liar.

Its the MLM "system" that can't work, ETHICALLY THAT IS, and not all the different products.....PERIOD. Again, Please read Pink Truth

Back to Flexkom. I've posted numerous "who is" posts about repeat offenders. These people need to be outed. It is NOT an accolade to be a "successful network marketer". Why don't people get that?

Originally Posted by Char

Exactly. That's why I personally lean toward focusing on individuals and their previous acts.
...
I look at it like buying a stereo from a guy wearing an orange jumpsuit with numbers on the back. We COULD discuss the quality of the alleged stereo in the sealed box, OR look at the guy who is trying to sell it.

It's very difficult to judge personal qualities based on reports on the internet, or even from traditional media.
There are such things as smear campaigns. There's such a thing as "crowd opinion" or "mob-style" justice.

Even factual data about criminal convictions or court findings are only clues, not 100% certainties.

Originally Posted by Char

Its the MLM "system" that can't work ...

Now this is more like it - where I think the education should be.

When a friend explained the concept of FlexKom to me, before he had even mentioned the word "FlexKom", before I had even looked anything up on the net, or had emailed EBCON or phoned Germany regarding that other "authentication", before any of that, all I had going through my head was "stay away".

The education has to do with basic economics. Economics so basic they should teach it in primary school.

For any business or economic activity to be a success, it MUST produce, create or supply something that somebody genuinely NEEDS or WANTS, that wasn't there before. If it cannot do that, then it will fail, and anything else on top is just fluff, smoke, mirrors, PR, advertising, sales pitch, etc

So to evaluate any given business you have to ask 2 questions:
1) What is produced, created or supplied?
2) Who wants or needs it?

If you can't answer these questions without getting complicated, then stay away.
If it's not obvious who benefits and who pays, and why, then stay away.
If to answer these questions you need "enough people on board", then stay away.
If any part of the "wants or needs" appears to be circular - meaning "you want it because others will want it", then stay away.
If any part of the transaction involves a "false currency" - such as FlexMoney, or an eWallet, then stay away.
If any part involves some kind of lock-in or long subscription which it's not easy to get out of, then stay away.
If any part of it seems to involve some kind of arbitrary delay - such as waiting for something to "mature" or "it has to be ready before phase 2 starts", then stay away.
If the company or group you're giving money to are ephemeral in any way at all, such as multiple companies with similar names when you look in Companies House [in the UK] (you do look at Companies House, don't you?), such as correspondence going to a PO Box, such as being unable to visit the actual offices of the people involved, then stay away.

If it involves something dazzling you with new technology, then find an old technology analogy to compare it with, and see if that is understandable. New technology isn't some kind of magical wealth machine. Basic economics has been with us since the stone age.

With FlexKom I couldn't get past question 1).
It splits into 2 further questions:
1a) WHAT is produced, created or supplied?
1b) HOW is it produced, created or supplied?

The "what" for FlexKom (assuming nothing but their own sales pitch for now) is:
They produce price discounts & cashback for consumers, and advertising channels & cashback for retailers.
Hmm, advertising is a valid business, so that part is believable, and might even work (like a "Yellow Pages" phone app?)

But creating discounts & cashbacks? Why wouldn't a shop do this by themselves anyway? It's easy for a shop to discount a price, and they don't need someone else to do it for them. Sure sometimes a discount is offered when a retailer puts an advert somewhere, but that's his choice, and there's certainly no lock-in or subscription.

So now we're curious. Why would this discount thing be there? That's a negative to the retailers, surely?
Well, comes the answer, that's how you attract the customers to the app. "Everyone likes cashback!"
So now we know that the system doesn't have a customer base already - it's like advertising in a magazine that has zero circulation. You wouldn't do it.
So (to continue the analogy) we boost the circulation by offering cashback to anyone who has the magazine through their door, and then circulation will be way up there!

Now we can understand the bare economics of it. Instead of a punter buying a magazine that he wants which also supports its business model through advertising revenue (for example, I Love Railways Weekly)
We have a magazine which pays the end consumer to have it, and also which apparently pays retailers for promoting the magazine.

And where will all these payments eventually come from? Where will all this money come from? What kind of magazine pays people to read it?
Just think of your local town rag. In my town the circulation might be 30,000. If you paid everyone a penny each, that's a £300 expense.

The apparent answer is: "the cashback money comes from all the economic activity which our product inspires".
Ignoring arguments about how much economic activity cashbacks actually do inspire, I still feel hollow about this question, what does FlexKom actually add? What value have they actually injected into the system?
Ignore the apps. Ignore the POS terminals. They're just fancy mechanisms for doing things that can already be done: forwarding an advert, and recording a sale + discount.

What do they add that wasn't there before? What do they add that a consumer or retailer needs?
If it has genuine value, FlexKom should expect to get paid, and consumer and/or retailer would be willing to, because it has value.

But somehow:
- FlexKom still take their cut
- the consumer gets his cashback
- the retailer gets his cashback

Where is all this money coming from?
Someone has to pay?!
Who is going to pay?

It comes from the consumer spending money with the retailer. But that's economic activity that is already happening, and all it does is squeeze the retailer's margins.
FlexKom didn't create that. They claim they did. Or they claim it will when it all "takes off".

As I've said before in this thread, any 3rd party involved in an economic transaction is either a leach, or a value injector.