@Rak 228198 wrote:
A few years ago, the .info domains were being sold for $1.99 each, and spammers were buying up these domains to do these sort of tactics.
I bought one as well on a discount an year ago 
for 0.72$ i think from Godaddy. Sadly the people I had it for back down and the renewal was 17.90$ I think.
When you say this, penalized as in.. no longer receives the benefits of the link juice being passed on.
More like, what you said, in addition to remove them for a while, from the SERPS. I’ve seen a punishment only once, in London, an old schoolmate of mine, tried to boost their company’s site and got them banned for several months.
I don’t know what happened afterwards, but since he still works there, I guess they are all right.
Are you familiar with the recent JC Penny scandal?