You could simply hang up as soon as you hear "Hi I am calling on behalf of Microsoft Technical Support" oooookay yip sure you are, and I am a talking dog,, Click
You could let them talk and then say "hold the line a minute", leaving the phone on the table till they hang up, may be a pain but it's time they can't call another person.
You could let them continue, once they say "Your computer has been sending Microsoft, error reports, blah blah...." you could simply say "That's weird since when Did my Apple Mac start sending it's error reports to Microsoft" Chances are they should hang up at that point, if not hang up on them.
Or if your up for a laugh, and can handle yourself okay string them along it can be funny listening to excuse after excuse to why they are calling you, and them trying there hardest to convince you that they are indeed trying to help you.
FACTS/POINTS....
1 Microsoft will not cold call you regarding PC errors.
2 Microsoft will not pass your details to other parties, even if they did have all your details.
3 Microsoft would not have your details in relation to error reports sent to them from your PC, they are anonymous, besides in most cases Error Reporting is turned off.
4 Unless you have registered your operating system against your name with Microsoft not even Microsoft will know exactly who uses a specific PC.
5 No 3rd party would ever be able to link your Specific PC to your Phone Number/Name. Not unless your PC was already Compromised.
6 Always run Virus Software on your PC.....
7 NEVER hand over your Credit card Details Online or Over the Phone to anyone that has called you, or on any software that you don't know 100% what it is. any Purchases done via Credit Card online should be initiated by you alone on Trusted Sites.
8 NEVER go to any website or install any software that a Cold Caller has tried to make you load.
9 NEVER go to any support site that a cold caller has tried to make you load, they can be genuine but the callers motives are not
About the Scams
Generally the Scammer will start the call "Hi I am .... from .... Support we are calling on behalf of Microsoft because your computer has been sending error reports" in most cases the caller will have a foreign accent continuing to ask if they can speak to the owner of the PC or Asking for the owner by the name listed against the phone number.
I generally just say "YES" ..................for some reason in most cases YES seems to confuse the caller?
Next once they figure out they can talk again, they ask if the computer is on, then ask if you are in front of the PC.. at this point you could do one of many things....
Make them wait while you make a coffee, say yes, you could actually go to your PC if you wanted and actually type what they ask to a point.... it's really up to you.
What I do is generally wait until they think I have fallen for there Scam, after they have already tried to get me to go to the Command Line, then ask the "Tell me how did you associate my Name/ Phone Number to my Computer.." the answer will be something along the lines of ... "Well when you buy a computer with Microsoft Software all your details are sent to Microsoft".
Next the caller will try to fool you by stating your computer ID is "888DCA60-FC0A-11CF-8F0F-00C04FD7D062" followed by them telling you they will prove the ID of your Computer.
They will then tell you to hit the "Windows Key" assuming that you have no idea what the windows key is, and repeating many times where it is located on the keyboard, like one of those mechanical talking parrots "It's on the bottom left far corner , it's on the bottom left far corner ......" once they assume you have your finger firmly on that "Windows Key" they will ask you to push the "R" key.
It's fun to mess with them at this point and say something like, "where is that Windows Key again?" You can just hear the frustration on the other end of the phone... but then you have to listen to that Parrot again, once you have done that if you choose to, you can then say oh its the "Standard Run Command" for some weird reason this confuses them also, I assume it is because they are reading from some script, they will either talk like a Parrot asking you to do the same thing again or continue to ask do you see a box to type in.
Next they will ask you to type "CMD .... C for Calling.... M for Me.... D for Dumb" to confuse them again say "oh it's the standard command line interface" they seem to refer to this as a black box with a flashing cursor.. I call it the Command line ... but you can call it what you like, LOL.
The next step is the one I found the funniest they ask you to run the command "ASSOC" this is simply a list of Associated files v Applications, on almost all systems you will see something similar to zfsendtotarget=CLSID\{ 888DCA60-FC0A-11CF-8F0F-00C04FD7D062}.
Beware this number is in no way your specific PC ID Number it is simply a reference number for a specific part of your operating system it will be the same number on most PCs.
at this point you could either quiz them on how the file association CLSID Number is in anyway linking your PC to your phone number, since it is in no way unique. or you could just pretend you agree...
There are many ways of opening the computer Event Viewer, but for some reason they revert to running it from the "Run Command" or the "Command Line" so you will have to let them turn into a Parrot again for a while squawking off all kinds of commands in military style. "hold the windows key, hit "R", type CMD .... C for Calling.... M for Me.... D for Dumb, what do you see, Command Line..... now type "E for.........." at the end you will have eventvwr once you hit enter you will see the Windows Event Viewer.
For some reason when they ask what you see they get really confused when you say "the standard Event Viewer" and insist that you run the command again?
Once they have you in the Event Viewer they will direct you to a specific Event list, further informing you that a standard PC with no issues would only have a maximum of 4-6 errors listed, this is absolute rubbish. Even a brand new PC directly out of the box could have more event warnings and errors than that. In fact in allot of cases the Event Logs would not even show if your PC had Virus problems, more often than not running applications, the speed of your PC or if your Virus Software has stopped working would be a clearer sign you have issues with your PC.
In any case they will inform you once you say you see 1000 or more Events in the Log something along the lines of "Oh My God REALLY, do you know what all these mean" i'm like yes my PC is fine "Oh your PC is in major danger" oh I see "These errors are caused because you have been on dodgy websites and you have infected the Motherboard of your PC" WOW the Motherboard LMAO that's incredible. So these standard DNS errors I am getting are because my Motherboard is Infected, Yes sir that is correct and it is very serious...
Well anyway after I pulled myself together I asked oh what are these Errors that you have received from Microsoft regarding my PC, that question I had to repeat about 3 times before he actually said "I am sorry sir that information is confidential and Microsoft do not provide that to us" oh I see but they give you my Phone Number and Name so you can do a follow up call? "yes sir that is correct....." Oh okay sure they do.
Once that was over they push right along and turn back into that annoying Parrot informing you to hit the Windows Key again.... this is the part you should stop at ...
At this point they will instruct you letter by letter on typing in a website address that will open a web browser, You can pretend you are doing as they say, and keep saying oh what was that, what was that, "BUT DO NOT TYPE THE WWW LINK" just keep annoying them until they give up, this will take a bit as they have already invested 10 minutes of there time into your call, expect some abuse, or if you don't want that to happen just hang up, talk over them and hang up, or just tell them you work in IT, they will most likely laugh as if they are better than you, and still continue to explain your PC is in need of repair. So again hang up, don't bother getting in a word slinging match with the fool on the other end of the phone it's not worth it.