Most of these scammers are outside the UK, in India or Africa somewhere. Those countries do put a lot of resources into capturing 'Yahoo boys' and the like, but it's sometimes like looking for a needle in a haystack. I think the more realistic solution is to educate people so they don't fall for some of these preposterously blatant scams.
I'm surprised that in the surveillance state it's that easy to disappear with the money.