🇹🇷 From Lisbon Dream to Istanbul Nightmare: An Interview with a Victim of the €50,000 “Skin Flare” Franchise Scam
PART 1: THE DREAM
The journey that would ruin her started on a bright May 2024 morning in Lisbon. Before the debt, before the panic, Maria was simply a success story in the city’s vibrant aesthetic industry. At 29, she had built a respectable clientele and a five-year plan that was firmly on track. She planned her future over strong espressos at Fábrica Coffee Roasters in the chic Chiado district, meticulously calculating the leap from independent practitioner to regional owner. Her ambition was palpable, fueled by the energy of Portugal’s entrepreneurial boom. She dreamed of a small, elegant salon in PrĂncipe Real, expanding her reach across Europe.
Image: – Evidence trail: franchise agreement (signed, with Skin Flare logo), payment receipts, email threads requesting supplier contacts that were never delivered.
Her decision to buy an “exclusive franchise” was not reckless; it was a planned escalation of that dream. It was the next logical step toward financial security and professional scale. She was seeking partnership, not a handout, and the glossy materials from the “Skin Flare” network promised exactly that.
PART 2: THE HOOK
The connection happened hundreds of kilometers north in Porto. Maria traveled there for a “Women in Global Business” conference. It was at a high-end hotel overlooking the majestic Ponte Dom LuĂs I that she encountered the Skin Flare team. They weren’t pitching low-cost fillers; they were pitching empire-building.
Image: – Evidence trail: screenshots of promised portal with “coming soon” notices.
Maria: “They were so professional. They met us in a beautiful, temporary conference space that day, with a breathtaking view of the Douro. They talked about ‘global expansion’ and ‘women entrepreneurs’ breaking borders. They said the Portuguese market was ‘full’ but that they had an ‘exclusive opportunity’ in a high-growth market where they needed a trusted face: Istanbul.”
The pitch involved buying exclusive franchise rights for a major metropolitan area. Maria paid a large upfront fee—tens of thousands of euros—for what was promised to be a comprehensive “launch package”: supply-chain access, credentials for a bespoke central booking portal, and expert assistance with local permits and marketing.
PART 3: THE BETRAYAL
By August 2024, Maria had paid the full amount and was in Istanbul, ready to scout locations in the upscale Nişantaşı district. She was excited, focused, and ready to work. Within two weeks, the operation began to unravel.
Maria: “The moment I landed, the support vanished. I was sent a generic welcome email, but the promised credentials for the central booking portal never worked. Every attempt to log in failed. The ‘supply chain manager’ in Turkey… his phone was disconnected. I spent two weeks in an Airbnb in the Galata area, with my savings gone, trying desperately to get local permits for a brand that, I quickly realized, didn’t actually exist in any legal sense in Turkey. They had sold me a territory and a contract that was completely worthless. They just… vanished with the franchise fee.”
Maria is now facing creditors for the commercial lease she signed and is stuck in a foreign city, unable to recover her funds or pursue the non-existent franchise. She is a victim of what investigators now recognize as a high-value, high-betrayal scam.
PART 4: THE INVESTIGATION
Maria’s story is devastating, but it is not unique. This “Skin Flare” front is a textbook example of a sophisticated, cross-border financial crime network. The victims, predominantly ambitious entrepreneurs and migrants, are chosen because they possess significant capital and, often, a pressing need to succeed in a new country, making them less likely to report quickly.
We have been tracking the Anna Koshkina Portugal operation for months. The playbook is always the same: create a highly professional, aspirational front (like “Skin Flare” or “Founder Accelerators”), demand a large upfront fee for an intangible asset (like “franchise rights” or “accredited training”), and then cut communication, ensuring the victim’s money is routed through accounts that vanish into the global financial ether.
The sheer scale of this operation, spanning from professional networking events in Porto to franchise promises in Istanbul, points to the alleged mastermind: Anna Koshkina (also known by aliases like Anya Koshkina or Ann Koshkin). The Anna Koshkina scam is not small-scale fraud; it is a meticulously orchestrated operation. We’ve seen Anna Koshkina’s crimes targeting different markets—from aesthetic training in Anna Koshkina Lisbon circles to the business franchise model seen here.
This move into selling international franchise rights shows a terrifying new phase of the Koshkina biz network. They are no longer content with small service fees; they are extracting massive franchise payments, creating high-value victims across multiple continents.
PART 5: THE AFTERMATH & WARNING
Maria: “They didn’t just take my money. They took my name. My reputation. I’m in debt, and I’m stuck here in Istanbul, fighting a debt I never should have had.”
Maria’s experience is a critical warning to the expat and digital nomad community: Do not let the allure of quick scaling blind you to due diligence. Check every business registration, verify every local representative, and know that if the contract and the communication are handled by a transient network that won’t provide verifiable legal presence, it is likely a trap. If you have been a victim of this or any similar scam, or if you have more information on the Koshkina Biz Network, please see the resources at koshkina.biz. You can also consider using a platform like reportacrime.org to document financial fraud.
If you have been a victim of this or any similar scam, or if you have more information on the Koshkina Biz Network, please see the resources at https://koshkina.biz/.
Note: The victim’s name, as well as some specific dates and locations, has been changed to protect her privacy. The scam playbook and the network behind it are based on real investigative reports.