J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
I had one of these calls yesterday - "your computer has stopped
communicating with the Windows server", or something like that.

I used my usual: "hang on while I get the police on the other line";
that usually makes them hang up pretty smartish.

However, thinking about it afterwards, I wondered: would it be possible
to devise something that could do something to their systems, while
pretending to do whatever they ask? I've never gone beyond the initial
call - I have always seen through them so far, it's not been difficult!
- so I don't know what they ask you to _do_.

I suspect it isn't likely to be possible, but it would be _so_
satisfying ... (-:

I've used a technique with spam callers who start with something like
"Hello. And how are you today?"
It consists of completely monopolising the conversation. They're paying
for it; you can have a captive audience.

Oh, I'm feeling very down today. My dad died and left me all his debts.
And then my computer blew up, and shattered the house, bringing down the
partition wall with next door. And then an alien flew in through the
window, abducted me to a mother-ship in the sky and implanted God knows
what in me. I'm finding that I've acquired extraordinary powers; such as
I can fly like a bird, and my eyes give out a beam of light which can
cut through solid objects like a laser beam, and there's a big S carved
on my front, and ... Hello, are you still there?

Ed