Telephone Fantasy

"Your computer has been hacked, press 1 to speak to a Microsoft technician now."

(presses 1)

"This is Microsoft technical support.  Your computer has been hacked."

"Which computer is that?"

"Your Windows computer."

"Can you be a little more specific?  I have several."

"It is Windows 10."

"OK, that narrows it down to two.  Desktop or laptop?"

(pause)

"Your desktop."

"Thank you very much.  I just got a text message on my cell telling me that I can hang up now,  they have traced the call."

OK, so this is a fantasy.  There is nobody you can contact that will trace the calls of those people preying on the vulnerable, the elderly, any of the non-technical people out there who would not recognize that these calls are a scam.  Trace the calls and then bring them to justice.

But there should be.

Today it was Apple, telling me my icloud account had been breached.  That I don't own any Apple products was a pretty good indicator that it was a scam, if I had needed an indicator that is.  They called a few times.  I was busy and couldn't pick up the landline.

Here's how it should work.  You get one of these calls on your landline, but don't pick up.  Then you call a number, and give then your cell number and landline number.  They give you a callback number.

When the scammer calls again, you text 'now' to the callback number.  When they have the caller's real number, they text back 'got it'.

With so many of us working from home, now would be a perfect time to recruit a few hundred people across the country to be volunteer bait.   In the meantime, I will play the game anyway, and let the caller think, if only for a moment, that the cops are on the way.