I always thought that using frames would be the least likely way to get indexed. So using frames would probably not help in terms of SEO. Nevertheless, the aff in question used it in an unethical manner without asking for permission.
I use a frame buster script on a site which I don’t want to be “framed” because it has bandwidth intensive stuff on it and by framing it one could get around the hotlinking restrictions and suck up my bandwidth.
I came accross the loriwebs site before. Even though it’s a bit old it gives quite a good overview of the main blackhat/scammer methods. With regards to automated scraping attacks I suggest a bad bot trap – you’ll need a dynamic site for this.