They did call me again: twice. The Christian ploy did not work. My aim was to waste as much of their time as possible and they would have hung up too quickly. I presume that they are using a VOIP connection from India or somewhere, but I still want to waste their resources.

This time I stopped the script and established quickly that there was a massive plausibility problem because their business model imitates the well known Microsoft Support Scam. He conceded that this was a big problem for his company. So we concentrated on how they could convince me that they were genuine. We kept coming to an impasse. Here was a company that claimed to have great expertise in computer security asking me to give on-line access to my computer to a stranger on the phone with an Indian accent. There is really no convincing response to that, but boy do they try. First he gives me his Company ID number which we then agree would be useless if it is a scam. Then he gaves me a company registration number and directs me to the site where I can look it up. Sure enough, that number belongs to Microsoft. It takes quite a while for me to convince him that the number is publicly available information – probably on the MS web site. Apparently no one else has ever told him that before.

We had reached a total impasse, but before departing I asked him to tell me the bottom line. Here it is:
THe Firewall that comes with Windows 7 is no good and routinely lets through massive virus attacks and hackers. They have a new improved version but it has to be licensed annually. The cost is only $350/ year, and for that they will guarantee no more attacks.

We had a good laugh about that. By this time he knew that the cover story was totally blown and he could see the funny side. This guy was a cut above the other callers, and from his accent I think he had lived in the west. Perhaps he was an executive scammer.

I tried the same tactic on the next call but the caller was a nervous young woman with an almost unintelligible accent who could not depart from the script. I was able to get her to hang up in frustration. That is an achievement because I am sure that they are trained not to do that. I did ask her if she was a Christian and she said: yes. So they would simply tell you what they think you want to hear on any question about ethics.