internetheaven - 8:39 pm on Jun 13, 2008 (gmt 0)

Surely they would just not count the links as apposed to dropping the rankings. Especially since it is "very cheap way for your competitors to sabotage you."

Search for thread in this forum for "things competitors can do to harm your rankings in Google". 450 results showing in a site:WW search!

If those links had initially given you a boost is rankings, Google may discount those links causing your site to drop back to the previous position. So it may appear that you are being hurt, but in reality the links that were helping you are now just ineffective.

No longevity given, after the first backlink update the site had dropped and it never recovered. The test now is whether removing them will undo the drop! I'll be sure and post if there's a change.