I read a lot around about SEOers are conning people and procedures need to be put into place to monitor and control SEO work. Well what about the other side.
An advert states this: In addition to being part of a *********, your listing provides your own company website a valuable “back link” – excellent for your own website’s Search Engine Optimisation
...but in reality all the links are javascript redirects. Now to me that IS criminal, because it is truly misleading to any unsuspecting business, and for SEO useless.
So the bottom line is to always research what is being sold to you, no matter what else.