get forensic on their ass

The landline phone in my office rang, and when I answered it wasn't my Mum.

This was probably going to be one of two other things then. A 'robo-call' - some recorded sales/scam message. Last one "We are calling from bank security (no actual bank name). There have been two unusual transactions on your card...". Or it'll be a cold sales call.

It was an actual human being, on the second type.

Caller: Hello, I'm calling from energy efficiency. We have concerns about your loft insulation and that it now might be dangerous to your health...

(This might be worrying news... but hang on... let me interrupt the script here to ask a simple question about the first detail you were hoping to skip on past...)

Me: Sorry, I didn't catch the name of your company.

Caller: Oh, we represent many companies in the energy efficiency sector and...

Me: Yes, fair enough. But what is the name of the actual company YOU are calling from?

Caller: Click...

They've gone.

Mrs S listening from the lounge shouts "I love it when you just get all forensic on their ass."

I'm a bit disappointed I didn't get longer entertainment out of it. I had questions about where I could find their company website next. Then I'd ask them their name, then I'd ask them if they knew who the head of their company is and what their email address might be, then perhaps move on to a query about where I could find a database of what type of loft insulation my property had, just like they apparently did.

And then I'd want to know where the information about danger to health from loft insulation was - that as far as I was aware was, you know, safely up in the loft - and where I could find the actual science published about it.

Some people get entertainment value from winding up the caller, pleading ignorance and stretching the call out that way, before coming out with their zinger at the end. There has been a lack of Microsoft Customer Support callers to string along for twenty minutes before announcing that their virus software probably won't work because your computer runs Linux at the end recently. Perhaps they've all got Linux themselves now.

But generally my technique with these things is not letting any slight vagueness go sliding by without interrupting and making them explain it properly, and in depth, before continuing. Be an awkward non-customer. Invariably, the first line of their introduction contains something of pure made-up rubbish. No company name? Don't let it slide by until later, ask straight way.

Capitalism in general too often works this way. Marketing. And politicians. They all get their scripted spiel out and past you, try to move on quickly before you notice and start thinking "What?" and picking at the holes in what just got said.

Getting forensic on their ass - or even worse, pedantic - is a legitimate and necessary defence to avoid getting tangled in their slipperiness. 
And it's great sport.