Not saying it's what's actually happening here, but it's something that has crossed my mind before about malware - that it would be comparatively easy to lead one or more false trails to shift blame for whatever reason, and I wonder how many pieces of malware have actually managed to pull this off, and pinned the blame on an obvious target, e.g. Chinese government, "russian hackers", etc.

You're overthinking it.

Reads to me like someone writing viruses that doesn't know a thing about writing viruses

someone who infected 100,000 machines knows at least 'a thing' about writing viruses

To use the analogy of an art thief, this is as if he had simply smashed some glass and made a run for it, without dealing with security systems and whatnot. He might make it out the door, but now the museum has him on video, they have his fingerprints, and they're probably going to get the stolen art back.

The world has no shortage of desperate people who will jump at the chance to earn a few bucks "working from home," where they help "hardworking businessmen between banks" move money. Perhaps the excuse is different and culture-specific, but peoples' inclination to look the other way when they think it benefits them is universal.

If that's true then it's kind of like the robin hood of malware.

This would create an interesting spread incentive for the attack: once you are infected and you pay, you can still be reimbursed if you manage to infect someone else. You could even make this into a pyramid where several person's payment go to a parent carrier, and people will even want to be infected quickly to be closer to the top of the pyramid.

Or just use a random previous victim id. Now it becomes a viral non-consensual lottery and you benefit from spreading it.

This criminal mind is going to get me in trouble some day...

Part of the difficulty is fighting greed, as the people that get caught are the ones that push their luck way too far. They're often wildly successful at first with more cautious approaches, but as they get more brazen they end up getting busted.