Claiming that VPNs have more people signing up with stolen credit cards than their own credit cards rather unlikely to me. The penalty fees on the resulting chargeback would make it difficult to make a profit, particularly on a service that competes on price in an increasingly crowded marketplace.
As I see it there are three main customer groups for VPNs; people using it to circumvent copyright protections (either location based or outright theft), tech savvy people who want privacy, and bad guys.
The original said more bad guys than tech savvy people, I assumed that excluded copyright circumventors (the largest group) and you assumed they were included.
I would say that any claim is bold if it is surprising or apparently important, and is not covered by multiple mainstream sources.
Examples are claims of majority (A majority of people are suffering from sickness A, B, or C), Or claims of superiority (My car is the fastest in the world).