Vectorjohn

Hah! Well if this scam is similar but with different goals, maybe they'll do a follow up episode. It sounds like a somewhat different scam but it seems to have a similar thing where an automated system tries to keep you on the line for some reason. It's a good episode though, I recommend it.

I was going to say the weird phone thing you mentioned sounds like this, but I thought they said it had to be a toll free number. So, training an AI must be it. It's an episode of the podcast "Reply All", describing a scam that sounds very similar. Someone calls toll free numbers and tries to keep them on the line as long as possible, by being weird and appealing to curiosity, and there's some way they get money through the toll free system. Could be they use regular numbers to train their AI or recordings to make the calls longer. https://gimletmedia.com/episode/104-case-phantom-caller/