Hi Bryan,
Thanks for that. I've just been reading a thread from 2009 on which Rand posted some views on the difference between Paid Links and text Link Ads.
I suppose its hard to distinguish the difference between the two, but its clear in this particular case that the links have been bought, and aren't really for advertising purposes!
Its incredibly frustrating, but I suppose maybe in the long term they'll get punished. Who knows?!
Thanks anyway