> And the OP should bolster his case by naming names instead of hiding behind being afraid that he might become the target of exactly such an attack. I would say that would be easily resolved if the proof was strong enough.
In a perfect world, yes, that would be the case but we don't live in a perfect world. I think the OP is perfectly within their rights to not paint a bullseye on their back with zero assurance that google will protect them.
It's a pretty bold claim, some hard evidence would bolster that claim considerably. As it is this is one step above hearsay but the whole thing amounts to a possibly fictional conversation with another SEO type and a pretty graph. Without real information Google could not disprove the claims made here and they carry zero weight with me until substantiated. And I'm not exactly google's best friend.
In a perfect world, yes, that would be the case but we don't live in a perfect world. I think the OP is perfectly within their rights to not paint a bullseye on their back with zero assurance that google will protect them.