Although it took the combination of a number of elements to make this escapade work, it could not have succeeded without some skillful playacting of an appeal for sympathy and help: I'm getting yelled at by my boss, and management is up in arms, and so on. That, combined with a pointed explanation of how the man on the other end of the phone could help solve the problem, proved to be a powerfully convincing con. It worked here, and has worked many other times.