Perhaps I’m mistaken, but I believe at one point in time, years ago, they required a card for the free registration. It certainly wasn’t my intent to spread misinformation.

Now I’m wondering, how does Freenom make money?

I have recently tried to pick up a domain name on Freenom and had extreme difficulty getting the website to respond and issue me a domain name. Once I finally locked one down that I liked, my account was dissapeared without a courtesy email or anything. To be fair I was using obviously anonymous/pseudonym details, but I would have still expected a courtesy email.

Correct. I just got one with a fake name and address, no phone number needed, nor a credit card.