With the above being said, I see little other reason for someone to send that many merits to a supposedly random low level user that for all intents and purposes has zero merit otherwise.
That's exactly why you would do something like that.
Because it's not expected that it'll be a false flag. If someone has negative feedback already, then can they not use that account as a weapon against others? Suppose, for example, that crazybtrade has a bad history with a low-ranked account. Can't they attempt to ruin the reputation of that account then, by pretending to be an alt?
This (attempt) has happened before, I'm sure.