[nym]

I agree that you have to clear about "connecting" the customer to the business, not providing the direct number. In some ways this is better than a regular phone number because if the business' number does change, the proxied number could stay the same.

The gross exaggeration you're referring to is something that's easily overcome though by tracking total calls vs unique calls. Also you get great stats like how long the customer was on the phone for, and I imagine if they hung up or were hung up on.

Turns out many businesses want this kind of data to better improve their customer service. You would not believe how many leads are purchased, and never acted upon, just because the salespeople are lazy.

[pbhjpbhj]

If you put the ultimate company name (the service the customer is trying to contact) and then your phone number then that's passing off, tortuous malfeasance in European TM law (and I'd be highly surprised if it's allowed in the US).

If you want to advertise a business lookup service the ethical and legal way is to put your own name, then something like "contact Mountain View Cars through SuperHappyConmen.com on 123-456-7890, we are not associates of Mountain View Cars".

If people want to buy tracked phone numbers for their ads they will, I'm more than happy for you to provide them. But it's not your choice whether they take on your service or not.