They are most likely Chinese. I’ve been getting asked by Chinese accounts on LinkedIn to let them use my account to submit their apps on the Google Play Store for a fraction of their revenue. I’m guessing there’s a similar scam going on here too.
This is also very common on freelance sites like Upwork.
Computer crime is so very rarely traced and prosecuted, like most white collar crime.
Right, which is a massive problem. If these people and those like them were prosecuted then we'd have far less of a problem.
It's still a massive issue if the crime crosses borders; if the entity behind the malware is from, say, Russia, what can a prosecutor in the US do? This is why internet crime is such an issue.
There is a difference between ‘infects’ and ‘shows pop-up ads’. Annoying? Sure. Comparable to a complete security breach? No.
It's not a data breach, but it is fraud and should be treated as such.