Seems like an opportunistic scam, and a great way to get caught if the would-be scammers do not previously put in place a serious money trail obfuscation system. The investigator has, as the first piece of evidence, basically a direct link to the criminals' bank/ccard acct, for which the bank is legally required to have owners' ID. The casual scammers get caught, the professionals/serious gangs easily obfuscate the trail, and trust in the systems declines further.