I'm just a little minnow, but I actually had something like this happen too this week. The person was rep 30 and commented not only with a post link, but also with a photo from the post! Then she invited me to come visit.
Of course, I put a comment about how this is not the right way to do things here. The reply I got was nasty! She said I was missing an opportunity with my narrow mindedness! So I replied that if she must drop links - at least make them somewhat relevant to the topic of the original post. My post was about graffiti. Her post was about chocolate and fabric!
It's rampant these days.. People don't even seem to realize that they are essentially begging for attention when they link spam.. It's a damn shame people waste their time trying to make a quick dollar at the expense of their reputation.