My wife works with many Indian people, and learned from them that some Indians take the concept of a curse very seriously. To curse someone is apparently a very grave thing to do culturally and religiously to many Indians, so she learned.
So she chats idly with the scammer (almost invariably from India), finding out family details. Then curses the scammer and family and hangs up.
There seems to be something to this. Twice the scammer has rung back in high dudgeon. Once after being cursed, the scammer obviously asked around his cubicle farm for the worst insult he could unleash on an English speaker. He then rang back and called my wife a mf. Scammer didn’t get that the insult didn’t work in that context, and wife laughed at scammer’s ineptitude. She then told him that even if she was as he described, it didn’t matter because he was still cursed.
The second occasion involved a female scammer I had cursed who rang back. My wife answered the call, and the scammer wanted to speak to her husband, ie, me. Wife had heard the previous exchange and just said, “Nuh. Still cursed.” and hung up.
The host of the podcast Reply All got an “Apple” call and went with it to see what would happen. To make a long story short, it was an attempt to convince you that you have a virus and sell a grossly overpriced virus app. He started going on a deep dive with these people and developed an ongoing relationship with him. He even traveled to India to meet him. It’s an oddly fascinating story if you have the time to listen, or read the transcript.