Crypto Scams Worth Millions: How Oleksandr Orlovskyi’s Financial Freedom Academy Extracts Money While Hiding Behind Educational Programs

Oleksandr Orlovskyi’s Financial Freedom Academy continues to swindle people out of their money.

In 2024, crypto scammers received at least 9,9 billion U.S. dollars. As Oleksa Shtuchnyi writes in his article for the CRIME projects and [high-profile cases], analysts at the research firm Chainalysis concluded that this figure could rise as new illicit addresses linked to financial fraud are identified throughout the year.

Although preliminary estimates point to a certain decline in scammers’ income in 2024, the actual numbers could turn out to be record-breaking. Analysts note an average increase in fraudulent revenues of 24% between annual reporting periods. Thus, victims’ losses to crypto scammers could exceed 12 billion dollars by the end of the year.

One of the most popular schemes remains high-yield investment scams (HYIS), based on the principles of a financial pyramid. In 2024 this scheme accounted for 50,2% of all funds obtained by scammers, although its share of total fraud declined by 36,6% compared to 2023.

Chainalysis researchers overlooked a type of fraud known as crypto infoscams, more commonly called cryptocurrency “info-gypsy” scams in our region (this is when, for a large sum of money, you’re promised to be taught how to get rich quickly and effortlessly on crypto).

Ads from info-gypsies increasingly appear on social networks and messengers. So it’s obvious that the reach of their nets is growing, as are their profits.

The most aggressively promoting these “services” is someone already familiar to our readers, Oleksandr Orlovskyi, the nominal founder of Financial Freedom Academy (also known as the FFA community). And we didn’t mention him again just by chance.

Under the FFA brand, Oleksandr Orlovskyi pushes several infoscam “products.” Until last November their names began with “FFA Crypto,” and then Orlovskyi switched the word order to “Crypto FFA.” The seemingly senseless rebranding was done after the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC) added Orlovskyi’s FFA Crypto, FFA Crypto RISE, and FFA Crypto Capitalist to the list of dubious investment projects — that is, projects showing signs of a financial pyramid.

In June last year

In December of 2024

Because NSSMC’s activities are widely covered by influential media, it was much easier for Orlovskyi to change the scam’s name. If potential gullible investors search Google, for example, for “FFA Crypto Capitalist,” they will find the regulator’s warning. But if they type “premium investing program Capitalist” into the search bar, they may come across the “updated” project that apparently has no problems.

Moreover, after NSSMC’s “black mark,” banks and payment systems may block payments related to FFA Crypto. But Crypto FFA remains completely clean for them — until the regulator gets around to Orlovskyi again.

However, it seems that changing the sign didn’t help much, so Oleksandr Orlovskyi “counterattacked” the commission in court. On 19 March, sole proprietor Orlovskyi Oleksandr Oleksandrovych filed a suit against the NSSMC with the Kyiv District Administrative Court. The plaintiff asks the servants of Themis to:

“Recognize as unlawful the actions of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission regarding the unjustified control (supervision) over sole proprietor Orlovskyi O.O. and the inspection (analysis) of his activities concerning the maintenance of the so-called ‘list of dubious investment projects,’ namely: the inclusion (entry) of the plaintiff’s educational services, specifically the training programs FFA Crypto / FFA Crypto RISE / FFA Crypto CAPITALIST, in the list of dubious investment projects.”

We will tell next time that a financial pyramid is indeed built under the “umbrella” of pseudo-educational FFA Crypto projects and how it operates. You can read here about how FFA operators squeeze money out of “clients” through front persons. By the way, they effectively encourage them to cooperate with residents of the aggressor country.

For now, it’s worth paying attention to the kinds of ads Oleksandr Orlovskyi uses to lure Ukrainians hungry for quick gains into his nets. This is a textbook example of manipulative marketing used by info-gypsies to attract new victims to dubious financial schemes.

Here is how Oleksandr Orlovskyi uses psychological triggers and dangerous promises:

1. The illusion of easy money with no effort

Phrases like:

create the illusion of passive income with no effort.

Why is this deception?

2. Manipulation of the term “investing”

3. Social proof and “profitable cases”

Orlovskyi refers to “profitable investor cases.” This is a classic social-proof technique that works like this:

But here a hidden trap lies

4. Using the word “Capitalist” as a brand

The name Capitalist creates a sense of legality and professionalism, although it’s merely a marketing trick. In reality:

However, besides exploiting the minds of his “flock,” crypto preacher Oleksandr Orlovskyi apparently decided to “hack” their gadgets too.

For roughly half a year our team detected malvertising-type malware on the site https://orlovskyi.com — Orlovskyi’s flagship online platform (most recently in March of this year).

Malvertising (short for malicious advertising) is a form of cyberattack in which malicious software (a virus, trojan, spyware, cryptominer, etc.) is distributed through online advertising.

Given the long time this “glitch” was present on Orlovskyi’s site, it is unlikely that an external hacker simply “bolted” malware onto it. Most likely, the team behind this “crypto guru” did it. But why?

Theoretically, by using malvertising, Oleksandr Orlovskyi and his circle could obtain several types of benefits:

Whatever purpose Orlovskyi’s sect might have used this “gadget” for, a spicy legal nuance arises. The use of software similar to malvertising in Ukraine is a criminal offense.

For example, if users suffer attacks or data theft through malvertising, this can be classified as interference with the operation of computer systems. This is Article 361 of the Criminal Code.

If Orlovskyi and Co. merely spied on visitors — for instance, to more effectively “sell” them their “information product” — that would be Articles 361-2, called “Unauthorized sale or distribution of information with restricted access stored in electronic computing machines.”

To be continued.