I would be tempted to say if you tell us who they are and where they are, we'll go round with the baseball bat and sort them out for you! I truly hate people like this. No skill, no work ethic and mostly no idea what they are doing which is why they have to copy everyone else. Don't be put of and don't let them grind you down. Like others have said, if you do the right type of work in the right way, you and your clients will eventually win out. Also unlikely that google has necessarily taken any notice of what they have tried to do. More likely the type of linking you used has just been devalued by google's ever changing way of looking at things. Get the site right and the content right and you'll stay on top. Good luck!