They hang up in a hurry if you ask the right question.
Some options:
From what country are you calling?
Do you get paid hourly, or get a percentage of what you bring in? Or are you an independent contractor that buys lists and gets to keep all you can steal?
Bring all you got, I'm not going down.
Come and get me coppers.
A co-worker got one of these calls and asked so many questions the guy hung up on her!
I got a call the same week. I hung up on them.
The calls are a nuisance to most of us, but they can be very frightening for some elderly people. One woman told me her mother had had about 3 of these calls. Every time, it scared the poor thing half to death. (She has probably never broken the law in her life and here she is being threatened with jail). Every time her daughter calms her down, reassures her that she has no unpaid taxes, and that the IRS won’t call her, they would send a letter. Then she’s fine, until the next call.
I heard on the radio a while back that if only ONE percent of scam calls (of any kind) get a response, then it’s worth the scammers’ time and effort.
Scammers are getting more clever. They spoof local sheriff’s phone #s and even sound local when they call, not like from Mumbai. Somebody must be low on cash to take this kind of work.
We got something like this last month with threats of we’re coming to your house & immediately called the sheriff. They thanked us & said this was the tenth such call that day claiming to be them. The sheriff’s dept later called us back and said they had made some busts & our report helped make it possible. Seems they were able to trace the spoof number.