[asinclair]

The better India-based scammers now use vocoders to mask their origin. They have a set of pre-recorded messages that play when they press a button. Once they "qualify" you for the scam, they switch the call to a human scammer.

Why a vocoder? Recordings are of a woman's voice with a Midwest intonation. Perfect for seniors with hearing problems, the pitch range is perfect.

How to foil? After the first "Hello" or question, challenge them: my favorite is to ask "what is three plus five". Use your own challenge, and be creative. Real humans will react; the button pushers usually don't have an answer pre-recorded.

[cgbg]

Ask for the square root of -1.

If they don’t give you the correct answer hang up immediately.

Lol.