Google has plans to step up their anti-spam efforts for websites in 2011.
A new approach for communication of offenses:
The process has already begun. Webmaster Tools is being used as a communication portal for warnings of "unnatural links" and issues with cloaking. Both areas have some level of documentation, but to a lesser degree with the issue of unnatural links. These notifications via Webmaster Tools is quite a saving grace for those webmasters that are not intentionally spamming the system to create better ratings. Sometimes, a well-intentioned web master or website manager may have site violations resulting from a hack to the site of which they are unaware. Website attacks have often resulted in the offender installing some malicious code, which propagates web spam from the victim website.
Additionally, using Webmaster Tools for communication warnings will help drive more user interest to the program, which is a plus for Google as well.