This isn't anything new. A buddy of mine ran a "company" that sold backlinks (mostly low quality garbage) about a decade ago -- the company was making 7 figures yearly. At around the same time, I figured out how to game the StumbleUpon algorithm and was selling front page spots (for like $1k a spot) with my sister.

It doesn't surprise me that this is still happening. There's money to be made, but there's a lot of risk involved with greyhat/blackhat business models. Being young and dumb helps.