You would think that law enforcement would already be using a VPN or Tor for stuff like this.
> Then again, perhaps Rescator’s site simply noticed something amiss when my source funded his account with Bitcoin.
Maybe they walked the transactions back to some well-known funding source for law enforcement/government.
Smart crooks don't break the law. Stupid ones do.
Breaking the law isn't cost effective, and I am not talking about morals, I am saying that the additional overhead involved in covering your tracks and the potential liabilities (years of $0 or negative dollars income, legal fees) doesn't make sense.
Only rarely do you get a legitimately intelligent criminal, and that is often the result of personality issues/emotional problems.
There are plenty of very successful and intelligent criminals that have long, prosperous careers in theft.
Bernie Madoff ran a very successful, very illegal Ponzi scheme until he was nearly 80.
And that's not even to touch on the internet ability to let you violate the laws of counties you aren't physically in against citizens your gov doesn't care about (eg Russia to US), and therefore greatly reduce the risk for punishment.