Click-to-call or Click-to-spam?

Maybe my mind is just warped, maybe at heart I'm really an evil doer and I never new it, or maybe I'm just pissed that Google didn't give me a job so I could be assimilated with Google Love. Whatever it is, when I read about Google's new Click-to-Call service I had to admit the first thing I thought of was how it could be used for Click-to-Spam.

Their service puts a little phone icon on certain ads that show up with your regular Google search (via their AdWords service). You click on the icon, enter your phone number and then voila your phone rings and the advertiser is there to speak to you. Sounds great right! Google originates the call to you and the advertiser, the advertiser never sees your caller ID and you get a free connection just like a 1-800 call.

But wait, there's more. Didn't Google just create a Click-To-Spam problem? What if I was an evil doer, or just a plain miscreant and entered someone elses number? Or what if I was just a plain dumb ass and mistyped my own phone number... Hmmm, wouldn't that upset both the party called and the advertiser?

Okay so Google is going to track my IP address and send the boys around to beat me up if I do that (what for just mistyping a phone number?), so I wont do it. But maybe I'll wander down the streat and sneak onto someone elses WiFi network and do it, then they wont be able to track me.

Or what if I was a really bad man and purchased a bot net and had thousands of machines do that, all at the same time, or continuously all night long. Couldn't I have someone's number ringing of the hook all night long? Or with enough machines jam up an entire phone network, like some really important government phone system... all tied up courtesy of thousands of calls from Google Click-to-Talk. Oy. Doesn't sound like a good idea at all to me.

So, how about they make Clik-to-Talk work this way... I click the phone icon, it gives me an 800 number and PIN code. I call Google with an 800-number on my phone, enter the PIN , then Google calls me back and the advertiser and hooks us up that way? Then there is no doubt the call originated from me.

I mean they could just connect me right then and there instead of doing a call back, but I suspect the way Click-to-Talk really works is that Google originates both sides of the call over a very cheap VoIP network owned and operated by... Google. They probably have end points in enough cities that its virtually free to them. Then at Google telecoms HQ the two sides of the VoIP call are connected and bobs-yer-uncle. The advertiser gets a premium service and saves on 800 number bills, the caller gets a free call, and Google creams off a big pile of cash by charging the advertiser more and attracting even more advertisers.

But, Google really is going to have to solve the Click-to-Spam problem first.

If someone has actually used this service and confirm exactly what, if anything, they do to stop you entering in your ex-bosses phone number I'd love to hear!