Back links vs Back Fire

[steve0]

Here is a twist on a scheme..

Several clients have been getting emails stating their site's url has been added to the sender's site's link page and please provide a reciprocal link when they have time..

The thing is, the site would be something like wood-tables-and-chairs.com and it would be nothing but links to competing sites all in the same market.. 2 days later.. same email from wood-furniture.com then chairs-with-cushions.com. Nothing but competing links again.. (Usually a copy of the page from the 1st site.) This has happened several times with derivatively named, hyphenated, keyword domains.. (those above are ficticious)

My question is ...Is this site trying to bump its competition out of the engines or impact their position by buying a few domain names, adding all its competitors EXCEPT themselves, and making it look like a link farm(& FFA) with the associated negative impact?
An altruisic trojan horse of sorts?

[bhartzer]

They certainly have bought a bunch of keyword-rich domain names and are simply trying to get links by sending unsolicited emails.

These types of "form letter" emails get deleted out of my inbox as fast as the spam that I get. Sure, they can link to me as much as they want--I just won't reciprocate unless they have actually visited my site.

[voasi]

Steve0

What bhartzer is key to reciprocal linking. They CAN provide a link on there site all they want, regardless if its becoming a FFA page or not, but if you don't reciprocate the link, then that link won't hurt your good standings with the SE's.