Should I report unnatural links via Webmasters?

[dknewmedia]

We have a client who fired their last SEO firm for backlinking. The company has the actual emails and evidence that it found.  On July 19, 2012, they received a notice in Webmasters that "unnatural links" had been detected to their site.  The notice states that they should request reinclusion, but Matt Cutts is saying something different:

https://plus.google.com/u/3/109412257237874861202/posts/gik49G9c5LU

My client wants to ensure that they are NOT impacted, so should they notify Google anyways?

The notice in Webmasters reads:

Dear site owner or webmaster of….

We’ve detected that some of your site’s pages may be using techniques that are outside Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.

Specifically, look for possibly artificial or unnatural links pointing to your site that could be intended to manipulate PageRank. Examples of unnatural linking could include buying links to pass PageRank or participating in link schemes.

We encourage you to make changes to your site so that it meets our quality guidelines. Once you’ve made these changes, please submit your site for reconsideration in Google’s search results.

If you find unnatural links to your site that you are unable to control or remove, please provide the details in your reconsideration request.

If you have any questions about how to resolve this issue, please see our Webmaster Help Forum for support.

Sincerely, Google Search Quality Team

[irvingw]

Has the site been penalized or no? If not don't report anything. If yes then you need to clean it up and file for reconsideration, don't just assume that Google will lift the penalty you need to be pro-active.

[dknewmedia]

We do not see any penalties at this point.