In November 2024, Google users searched for information about a Flownwing reviews scam. Users specifically wanted to know if Flownwing.com and its sales of “creative gifts for kids,” like advent calendars and Christmas-themed items, were legit. For example, search suggestions appeared on Google for “flownwing discount code,” “flownwing gilmore girls” and “flownwing customer service number.” (Regarding the latter search phrase, the Flownwing.com website did not list any phone numbers for customer service and support.)
As of early November, Flownwing.com promoted on Facebook and Instagram more than 100 different paid advertisements. For example, the Flownwing website and Facebook page advertised 2024 Merry Christmas advent calendars, Halloween gnome advent calendars, Christmas tree building toy set, Grinch advent calendars, math challenge games, “Twilight” calendars, stationery advent calendars, F1 advent calendars, kids’ educational smartphone toys, Christmas gnome advent calendars, puzzle fidget cubes, birdie in a box, Christmas tree tumblers, white noise sound machines, erasable gel pens, girls’ charm bracelet making kits, customized deathbooks, anti-planners for productivity and more.
In my research, I uncovered a lot of information about the Flownwing reviews scam — terminology I’m publishing in this article for keyword purposes. Without relying on any other scam-busting websites that already looked into this matter, I concluded that Flownwing.com is an outright scam website. (The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published a guide about how to separate trustworthy online shopping websites from frauds.)
The bottom line: Everything about Flownwing.com points to origins in China. Also, as I documented later in this story, Trustpilot.com features numerous one-star reviews for Flownwing.com from users attempting to warn consumers to stay away from the website. Further, some users leaving five-star reviews on Trustpilot.com acknowledged they hadn’t received their purchased products yet. Why anyone would submit a review for an online store before fully examining the items they ordered with their own eyes is beyond me. (In an unrelated matter, check out the video for George Carlin’s comedy bit about “stupid people.”)
Five Flownwing Facebook Profiles
First up with the Flownwing reviews scam, I looked at results for five Facebook profiles (not pages) all named Flownwing. The oldest Flownwing Facebook profile (#100063525848738) displayed a creation date of Sept. 16, 2020. The profile also showed over 21,000 likes, 26,000 followers and manager locations with nine users in China and one in the Philippines. Further, the bio for the profile appeared as a possible poor translation to English. It read, “Flownwing–CREATIVE GADGETS HAVE WINGS & LET U FLY TO THE WONDERLAND.”
The other four Flownwing Facebook profiles displayed very few followers and no data for manager locations. The profiles showed creation dates of Dec. 27, 2020, March 4, 2023, Dec. 20, 2023, and Dec. 21, 2023.
Flownwing Reviews Scam Facebook Advertisements
As of early November, the largest Flownwing Facebook profile (#100063525848738) promoted around 120 different iterations of scam advertisements with fake reviews. The Flownwing reviews scam promoted all of the aforementioned products between Aug. 27 and November. Ads from August still displayed as “active” more than two months later. In other words, Meta accepted money for the scam ads and did little or nothing at all to help their users, even weeks later.
On Oct. 30, 2024, The Associated Press published that Meta reported tens of billions of dollars in their latest quarterly earnings report. The company primarily utilizes automatic detection of policy-breaking ads — a strategy that apparently does not work well enough to stop scams.
If Meta cared to stop scam ads, they could potentially move some of their tens of billions of dollars in earnings toward hiring credible moderators to manually review 100 percent of submitted ads prior to users viewing them. However, doing so would mean turning away easy money from users willing to pay Meta to advertise their scams. Seeing as Meta allegedly seeks to please shareholders over its own users, the company will likely never hire credible moderators to review all of its ads. Further, there’s no sign yet that anyone — the FTC included — will ever do anything substantial to stop Meta from accepting money from scammers, or simply to hold them to account.
Examples of Flownwing Reviews Scam Facebook Ads
In one Facebook ad hosted in the Flownwing reviews scam, the Flownwing Facebook profile (#100063525848738) displayed a post for a Christmas tree building toy set. That ad read, “Unwrap a Christmas surprise every day until Dec 25th! Inside each box, you’ll find a festive treat. Collect them all to build an epic Christmas tree!”
Another ad hosted by the Flownwing Facebook profile displayed a product named “Hoa Hoa 2025 Calendar for ‘Twilight.'” The ad displayed the text, “We are only two months to 2025!! Get this ‘Hoa hoa hoaaa’ for ‘Twilight’ fans.”
A third Flownwing reviews scam ad for a 2024 Christmas advent calendar read, “Introducing our 2024 Christmas advent calendar, the ultimate Christmas countdown calendar for kids and adults alike! Including rich Christmas elements such as exquisite gift boxes, Christmas bells, Christmas bears, Christmas stockings, sleighs, snowmen, snowflakes, and more, each of which is used to decorate your Christmas tree.”
Information About Flownwing.com
As of early November, the Flownwing.com website did not yet display a prominent Christmas or holiday banner. Instead, the website promoted a supposed “back to school sale.”
According to a search with GoDaddy.com’s WHOIS Domain Lookup tool, an undisclosed person registered the flownwing.com domain on Sept. 10, 2020. The search result did not display any information about China. However, again, the Flownwing Facebook profile displayed its users primarily reside in China.
The Flownwing.com website incorrectly displayed the email address “customer@flowning.com,” with the domain name missing its “w.” At the same time, some pages correctly listed “customer@flownwing.com.”
The terms and conditions page on Flownwing.com mentioned the mailing address, “YC Innovations Inc, Trolley Square, Suite 20C, Wilmington, DE 19806 (This is not a return address).” Meanwhile, the cancellation, return and refund policy page published other data, reading, “Baishi Yuncang, A02-206, Changshu Pugang Industrial Park, No. 22 Xinggang Road, Yanjiang Development Zone, 215500 Changshu, Jiangsu Province, People’s Republic of China.”
Further, scammers displayed to consumers on the final checkout page on Flownwing.com the incorrect email address, wrong terms and conditions link and other problematic labels.
Flownwing.com 1-star Reviews on Trustpilot.com
On the Trustpilot.com page for the Flownwing reviews scam, the website listed numerous one-star reviews for Flownwing.com. For example, one user wrote on Oct. 29, 2024, “Never received order. Asking for refund and no reply. Never again and after reading all of the reviews, NO ONE SHOULD ORDER FROM THIS COMPANY!!! Scam!!!”
Another user submitting a one-star review on Oct. 28 said, “If I could give a negative 10, I would. The box is only [7 inches by 8 inches] so I’m sure the Gnomes are only little pieces of junk!! Certainly not even close to what was advertised!! Buyer beware!!!!!”
A different user who also said they ordered a gnome advent calendar product wrote on Oct. 28, “Ordered the gnome advent calendar and got 2 small little boxes. Not the large one I ordered. Waiting to hear from customer service to return this garbage.”
In a fourth example of a one-star review for Flownwing.com, a user submitted on Oct. 26, “Placed an order and didn’t receive confirmation email. I think it is a scam on Facebook and when I opened the invoice on the shop app, my credit card details hadn’t been used, so I was so grateful to them. I then purchased similar from Amazon.”
Flownwing.com 5-star Trustpilot.com Reviews Aren’t Reliable
As previously mentioned, some users mindlessly submitted some five-star Trustpilot.com reviews for Flownwing.com before waiting to receive their shipments. For example, one person’s review from Oct. 22 read, “I love playing word yeatzee an I know I will love playing Q- less when I get it.” Again, that person said “when I get it” — a sign they did not yet receive their shipment.
On Oct. 13, another user submitted a five-star Flownwing.com review on Trustpilot.com, also saying they had not yet received their order. The review read, “Process was straight forward. Hope the gnomes are all as cute as those advertised.”
In a final example, a different user leaving a five-star review once again acknowledged they had not yet received anything in the mail, writing, “I saw an ad on social media and clicked on it to purchase, but it did not work. So I went directly to your site and it was very easy to navigate. And I even got a discount code as a new customer. So far, I’m happy with the experience. Can’t wait to receive the products, especially the gnome advent calendar.”
Need Help After Buying from Flownwing.com?
If any consumers who purchased products from the Flownwing reviews scam website on Flownwing.com need help and cannot reach the owner or owners residing in China or elsewhere, I recommend calling your credit card company on the phone. Credit card companies might be able to share sound advice in order to help resolve victims’ situations. I suggest any consumers who fell for this scam to ask your credit card company if they can refund the money. Mention your years of loyalty and on-time payments. Further, ask if it’s possible to block future charges from the same seller.
For further reading, I previously busted another scam on Hydrence.com — a website misleadingly posing as the Burt’s Bees Baby brand.