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 ... (-:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvJQxgtJW94

You can also report the spam call at 800notes.com, so others will know
that phone number may be from a scammer (or it could be spoofed by the
scammer) when they do an online search on the phone number (rather than
pay for all the lookup services pretending they'll give more details).

For landlines and VOIP (from ISPs), you could subscribe to NoMoRobo
(nomorobo.com) to get rid of the robocallers. It's free. At most, you
hear one phone ring and then it stops if NoMoRobo decides it was a
robocaller (not if a spam call by a human but by a robodialer). If a
human caller is mis-identified as a robodialer, they are presented with
a 4-digit CAPTCHA to complete their call. You can also report robodial
calls to NoMoRobo to help yourself and others. Alas, while they also
have an Android app, it isn't free. I do use NoMoRobo on my cell phone
number, plus I added it to my aunt's home phone (Comcast Voice).

You can use Google Voice (if you're in the USA or Canada). They have
their own anti-spam caller blacklist. At one time, I got rid of telco
(POTS) service and just had a cell phone number. I moved it to Google
Voice after testing for a few months. It was the same phone number that
I've had for over 40 years (except the area code changed when my area
got split up into multiple area codes). It was the number that family,
banks, employers, and everyone else ever got. Cost me $20 to migrate to
Google Voice. I even got an Obitalk VOIP box to use with my home phone
with Google Voice, and got rid of my ISP's voice service. Since then
the number of spam calls has gone down a lot. In fact, I can go to
voice.google.com, login, and check on the Spam folder, plus I can
designate new calls as spam or otherwise choose to block them. With
screening turned on, unknown callers (not in my contacts list) must say
their name, my phone gets called, and I can choose to accept their call
(press 1) or let it go to voicemail. Wrong number callers hang up after
hearing the screening prompt or when hearing the outgoing voicemail
message, so I'm not bothered with those calls. Human spammers go away
at the screening prompt. Robodialers don't ring longer than about 3
times and they don't respond to the screening prompt, so they keep
ringing and hang up after their 3 or 4 rings. A robodialer that makes
it to the screening prompt won't know to give a name for me to hear, so
I hear their robotized spiel when I press 1 and just hang up, but I get
extremely few of those calls. You cannot use NoMoRobo with a Google
Voice account, so no combining their blacklists.

After getting the robodialer to react to your voice and transfer to a
human scammer, interrupt yourself by saying there's an emergency and put
them on hold. Leave them on hold. The longer they are hold, the less
time they have to afflict other victims. You could interrupt them by
saying, "Okay, I understand, but I'm wondering if you've heard about the
power of Jesus, Praise the Lord, Hallelujah. I'd like to tell you about
salvation, brother, and how you, too, can be reborn." Even if they
start speaking, just keep talking while ignoring anything they say.

One scam trick is to pretend they are from Microsoft who has somehow
divined that your computer is infected. They'll take you to Event
Viewer to have you see all the errors listed in there. Tell them there
are no errors, no warnings, and all entries are info only. They'll be
astonished. Keep pretending to do what they ask but don't bother and
just report anything that contradicts their intent. Toy with the
****ant. You could tell them you don't have a computer. When they get
pushy, say "Hey, you called a public telephone booth and I answered the
call while sitting on the bench waiting for the bus."