An article was released today encouraging webmasters to ruin google answers. It promised high rankings depending on the number of spams a webmaster could successfully add to the GA system.
The theory was that google indexes it's google answers very frequently and because google answers itself is such a high ranked website, having your site linked to it will dramatically increase your rankings.
Adding your link to google answers works like it would in any other high ranked forum. The pages are likely quickly indexed but the page in which you're linked has a pagerank of 0. This is not very different from being linked to a good forum or blog site. Most posts remain at 0 pagerank because few people end up linking to them. Thus, spending time spamming google is less effective than posting frequently at a good forum. The mods will clean up any spam in GA eventually, and you get a url link rather than a keyword rich link, which does NOT help any particular ranking on a keyword.
The integrity of GA as a scholarly resource is highly disintegrated with promotional zeal. For example, a person was suffering from anxiety. He had already gone to the doctor and looking for any remedy that may ease the severities of his symtoms. Quickly enough the new wave of spam offered him books, pills, and powders from their site. Disgusting. If anyone needs website design they are bombarded with individual promotion rather than resources to help them find what they need.
Some bluntly spam every post they can without even reading some. Those that objectively answer questions and do not self promote at each post have nothing to worry about. Another group posts $2 questions and answer themselves disguised as a happy customer, but in reality promoting their own website.
Clearly exploit google answers so they can exploit google again in their pagerank is offensive. When spammers are fouling the quality of one of their most respected programs and costing google revenues from annoyed customers, researchers, moderators, and editors, they will take notice. Most webmasters are arrogant enough to use their own email. Chances are they CAN verify, and they may very well do so in several cases. If it means loss of revenues, google will take the necessary steps in order for the people to take notice that their spam is punishable and restore GA's educational integrity.