To address the only part of a pretty good MPSIMS OP which actually qualifies as a General Question, yes, apparently, sometimes they catch the masterminds behind the operation.
These aren’t the schlubs in the Delhi boiler-rooms making the calls. Allegedly, these are the punks who set up the scheme, wrote the scripts for the phone drones, contracted with the war-dialers and the bullet-proof-hosters and the malware writers. The “brains” of the operation, and the assholes making the money off it.
So apparently it happens, once in a while. In Great Britain, any way.
This scam has been particularly popular in Japan and Taiwan. In both countries, payment by bank transfer is the common method of payment so elderly people who are not computer savvy are frequent targets. The scammers can get out the cash and no one can trace them. Even arrests are rare, let alone successful prosecution.
In Japan, the scam is only from other Japanese, but here in Taiwan there are many Mainland Chinese attempting it.