A few years ago I worked for Shopzilla (a shopping search engine) in the UK, the trouble with what these people are doing is that it isn't actually illegal, merely Black Hat SEO. There premise of the whole thing is just that they don't get caught, that is why they cut the calls and start prevaricating when questioned too closely. It's actually a lot more common than people realise. Hey there are even books you can buy on Black Hat SEO