These particular people have called me a few times. I have tried various tactics with them.

None of us like what they do but take the time to remember there's a human being at the end of the phone. It's easy for us to judge them, but most of us live in comfortable homes and hopefully few worries. That can be in sharp contrast to the lives of the people calling us (usually from India).

On one occasion, I tried the tack of having a conversation - not about the computer but about my caller. I suggested that she should find a better employer, one that didn't try and trick people. I asked her if she enjoyed working for the kind of company that it was. She broke down in tears and said that she hated her job and she hated her boss. She told me her boss walked around the room listening in on conversations and shouting at them. She explained that she had a young baby and desperately needed the money. I became worried she might lose her job.

I wished her well and better fortune for the future.

I think it's a reminder that no matter how much we hate getting these calls and hate the scoundrels that set up these outfits, the person calling you can be an ever bigger victim than you are. Try and give them some respect.

I will add that other callers from that same company have been pretty rude and I have little sympathy for them, but that particular woman that called me that day did teach me a lesson (I sometimes forget) that we are all just people with problems of our own and we don't always have good choices to make.