I have little to no experience in SEO. Does Google have a history of weighing in on situations like this and manually penalizing bad actors? If so, I would love a link to read about.
You may want to dig into http://www.seobook.com/blog for an opinionated (albeit typically objectively correct) perspective on many things related to the SEO industry. There are a few studies about Thumbtack (with GV investment), RapGenius and eBay penalties and their subsequent recoveries.