How to steal millions without going to jail

“A man who has never gone to school may steal a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.”

Theodore Roosevelt, 1858-1919, American President [1901-1909]

Theft is a crime, just like fraud or hacking into other people’s accounts. But while petty criminals constantly fall into the hands of the police, we discovered a group that has been stealing millions of dollars with impunity for the 9th year. Moreover, these scammers practically do not hide and are not at all afraid of punishment. Do you want to know how to steal huge amounts of money without the risk of going to jail? Then look at the experience of a project called Freewallet org.

Freewallet: a cunning and insidious scam

Over the past 5 years, the volume of transactions with cryptocurrencies has increased approximately 12 times. The market capitalization of tokens and coins reached $2 trillion in 2020. This figure has decreased somewhat now, but still more and more users are starting to use cryptoassets.

What do you need to receive, store and send Bitcoin, Ethereum and other digital money? First of all, a safe and convenient crypto wallet.

The Freewallet org website invites everyone to download the application, which the developers themselves call safe, reliable, inexpensive and multifunctional. At first glance, Freewallet app may really seem like a cool crypto wallet. But in fact, the owners of the project created it for the sole purpose of taking their savings from clients.

If Freewallet was an ordinary scam, its administration would simply take the money for themselves. But this path is a direct road to prison for fraud. The project leaders, Russians Dmitry Gunyashov and Vasily Meshcheryakov, are educated and smart people. They did it differently. The service rules themselves indicate… that the company can do whatever it sees fit with clients’ money.

“Wait”, – probably you would ask, – “do you mean that their terms of service allow the administration to steal coins?”.

Well, in general, yes. But formally, from a legal point of view, it seems that scammers are not stealing your assets, but are simply blocking them as part of the KYC (Know Your Client) procedure. However, if you read the reviews of victims, it becomes clear that this process has nothing to do with verification. Customers are simply being robbed of their savings. But formally, the Freewallet administration operates within the framework of the rules that the client agreed to when downloading the wallet. This may be called as Freewallet KYC Scam.

Freewallet KYC Scam

Cryptocurrency is often used for illegal purposes, such as money laundering. Therefore, financial regulators require exchanges and other services to verify clients. On normal sites, the user is asked for his passport or driver’s license, as well as a questionnaire with information about the client. Not everyone likes to undergo verification, but in general everyone understands that it is necessary to fight cybercrime. But this not applies to Freewallet. The project administration carries out large-scale deception of clients under the guise of KYC:

1. The customer downloads Freewallet app. The wallet seems to be working without any issues.
2. Customers deposits or gets some coins on his address.
3. Freewallet administration suspends client’s wallet and asks to proceed verification.
4. Customer provides photos of his documents.
5. Administration declines the documents, asks to send more pictures.
6. Customer fulfills this requirement.
7. The administration again refuses to confirm my identity and demands that I send more documents, photographs, selfies, and videos.

This process can drag on for years until the victim comes to terms with the loss of their savings. But formally, the client is told that his money is just frozen and transferred to a safer address. I think readers have already guessed that the “safe address” belongs to the owners of Freewallet org themselves!

Real Freewallet victims reviews

Surely, you want to make sure that Freewallet is actually stealing customers’ money. This is not difficult to do. Look for sites and portals where there are reviews about the Freewallet wallet. You will see hundreds of complaints in which customers tell how they lost tokens and coins.

Firstly, you should check biggest crypto forums, like Bitcointalk. In the “scam accusations” section, you will definitely notice several topics in which the authors tell how, under the guise of verification, Freewallet owners stole their assets.

It is worth noting that representatives of Freewallet org are often present in discussions and try to play up the situation in such a way that the victim lost money through his own fault.

The second valuable source of genuine reviews about Freewallet is Reddit. This portal has dozens of communities related to cryptocurrency. In these discussions, clients often talk about how they lost tokens and coins due to Freewallet issues.

By the way, on Reddit the administration sometimes even deletes messages containing the words Freewallet, because this service there has a reputation as fraudulent, and therefore the bot deletes any advertisement for this wallet!

In addition, there are many portals on the network with reviews of various cryptocurrency services. Not all such sites can be trusted, since it is not difficult to negotiate with authors who will leave complimentary comments for a fee. But even on such resources you will see a lot of complaints!

Each of these users lost assets, in most cases due to the Freewallet KYC scam. According to our data, a total of $10 billion has already been stolen from victims.

How Freewallet scammers avoid punishment

At the beginning of the article, we already said that Freewallet owners have invented a way to steal millions without fear of responsibility. This is due to the fact that they disguise their fraudulent actions as regular identity verification. Therefore, it is not easy to prove the existence of a crime. Victims sometimes turn to the competent authorities, but it is easier for the police and similar structures to turn a blind eye than to try to find evidence of targeted fraud.In addition, Freewallet org administration closely monitors negative comments and deletes or blocks evidence of crimes. For example, some domains on which we told the truth about Freewallet were deleted at the request of the creators of the wallet. This allows criminals to whiten their reputations and attract new victims.

But this does not mean that scammers will be able to escape punishment. It will just be a little more difficult to achieve justice. Moreover, taking into account the fact that the real owners of Freewallet org do not advertise their names. But we managed to find out something.

Real Freewallet owners

A formal investigation will be required to hold the owners of Freewallet org accountable. For now, we can only guess, relying on open sources, how exactly this criminal group works. As reviews from many clients show, the real founder and leader of the project is Russian citizen Dmitry Gunyashov. This man was born and raised in St. Petersburg, then lived in London, and is now believed to be in Lisbon.

Gunyashov is also the creator of another similar project called Cryptopay. And if you compare customer reviews of both services, you will notice similar methods of deceiving users.

Another Russian citizen, Vasily Meshcheryakov, is often called Gunyashov’s right hand (main assistant). Apparently, this person still lives in the Russian Federation. But the formal head of Freewallet org, Alvin Hagg, is often called a figurehead. Although this does not mean that he is not aware of the crimes committed to steal assets!

The fact that Gunyashov and Meshcheryakov do not advertise their involvement in the project may be a strategy to avoid punishment. Indeed, today the Freewallet org website officially does not have a legal owner, which means there is no one to present claims to in court proceedings.

Is it possible to stop Freewallet scam?

Yes. But this will be extremely difficult, since the deception scheme was developed by real professionals. It is difficult to legally prove the fact of fraud, since the administration hides its actions under the terms KYC and AML.

First of all, it is necessary to ensure an objective and fair investigation. To do this, we have already submitted an official request to the National Fraud Investigation Bureau. Since Gunyashov often visits London and has a registered business there, the criminal case is also within the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom. A few weeks ago, we launched a petition calling on the NFIB to investigate the actions of Freewallet owners in order to protect the interests of those affected. Each signature left on the petition will speed up the prosecution of fraudsters.

Additionally, it is very important that users realize that Freewallet is a scam, not a safe and secure crypto wallet. The sooner traders and investors stop sending money to criminals, the sooner the group will run out of opportunities to evade punishment. Therefore, we also encourage everyone to share Freewallet org victim reviews and help scam victims seek justice!