PBS高端访谈:一名记者是如何揭露电话诈骗的

 　　We've all received spam phone calls from random¹ numbers, but most of us don't do what "Reply All" podcast host Alex Goldman did.

　　I sat down with him earlier today. Well, first of all, what did you do?

　　I got someone on the phone who was trying to sell me tech support, telling me that my iCloud had been compromised, that my computer was being looked at, my bank account was being looked at.

　　And I knew right away that it wasn't true, but I was curious just how far I could this person to go in terms of admitting what their business model is and sort of keeping them on the line.

　　Surprisingly, he was very candid² with me. And so, I thought, oh, OK, so I got a phone call, told me to call back a 1-800 number.

　　So, I basically keep this 1-800 number back and see what happens.

　　And I thought to myself, this person is trying to steal money from me, and they know information about me that I'm not super comfortable with them knowing.

　　What would it take for me to sort of flip³ that equation on its head, like what would happen if I tried to learn everything about them? And would it be possible?

　　They take — you authorize⁴ them to take a look and view your screen and your computer screen.

　　What did you do with that process to sort of turn the tables on them?

　　Well, one of the things we did was, my — again Tim Howard, my executive producer, suggested, hey, you looked at their Facebook profiles, you know a lot about these guys.

　　Why don't you just put a picture of them on your desktop⁵ background and see how they react?

　　And it caught them totally off-guard. I was — I figured they just hang up on me. Instead, they put the boss on the phone.

　　So, the scammer on the phone with you, taking a look at your computer and then, all of a sudden, he sees pictures of his co-workers on your desktop background.

　　He's like, wait, there's something off of this.

　　Yes, the best is there's a moment of silence and he just says, OK.

　　That's just a sliver⁶ of our conversation. You can find the rest on our Facebook page.

　　The next episode of "Reply All", including what happens when Alex goes to India to meet the man who tried to scam him comes out this Thursday. undefined

1 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

2 candid   

adj.公正的，正直的；坦率的

参考例句：

• I cannot but hope the candid reader will give some allowance for it.我只有希望公正的读者多少包涵一些。
• He is quite candid with his friends.他对朋友相当坦诚。

3 flip   

vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的

参考例句：

• I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书，看来似乎很有趣。
• Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。

4 authorize   

v.授权，委任；批准，认可

参考例句：

• He said that he needed to get his supervisor to authorize my refund.他说必须让主管人员批准我的退款。
• Only the President could authorize the use of the atomic bomb.只有总统才能授权使用原子弹。

5 desktop   

n.桌面管理系统程序；台式

参考例句：

• My computer is a desktop computer of excellent quality.我的计算机是品质卓越的台式计算机。
• Do you know which one is better,a laptop or a desktop?你知道哪一种更好，笔记本还是台式机？

6 sliver   

n.裂片，细片，梳毛；v.纵切，切成长片，剖开

参考例句：

• There was only one sliver of light in the darkness.黑暗中只有一点零星的光亮。
• Then,one night,Monica saw a thin sliver of the moon reappear.之后的一天晚上，莫尼卡看到了一个月牙。