Did you report to “John Smith” at your last role?

Recently, I had a conversation with a recruiter who apparently had the ultimate contract on offer for me.

The conversation moved swiftly on from telling me how great the job was to this:

Recruiter:
So your last contract, did you report to <John Smith>?

Me:
No.

–awkward silence–

Recruiter:
Ah, ok, who was it then?

Me:
Sorry, I don’t give out names

Recruiter:
Well I won’t be able to help you with that amazing contract I have on offer

Me:
Oh that is a shame. Goodbye

What the recruiter here is trying to do is to get me to give away the name of the person in charge of hiring at that company.
Then, he has the first and last name of the person I reported to. With this, he can phone them, saying something along the lines of:

Hi, is that ?
Alex Brown said that you were looking for staff, and personally asked me to give you a call

See, now I’d look like a fool who passes details on to parasitic recruiters!