Question about garbage backlinks

(Not an SEO expert by any stretch; bear with the noob-ness)

Context:

• My friend runs a local business. He has a website to generate calls, setup a website, runs search ads with keywords.
• This SEO agency he recruited makes 1000 backlinks for him every week.

These backlinks seem to be... well, to put it mildly, garbage.

It seems like this agency has pages on hundreds of "free blog" sites where they dump "articles" for their clients. There is no topical correlation among clients either. Seems to be all about keyword density and backlink count.

So the agency sends him a bill every week with an excel showing the backlinks.

Questions:

1. Does this really work?
2. Isn't this counterproductive in the long run? I'm not an SEO expert, I come from an eng background so I may be naiive, but: isn't it a matter of time before Google releases an algo update that flags websites which do "garbage-backlink-farming"?
3. What's a better approach, this 1000 backlinks a week approach, or 10 quality backlinks a week? (in addition to on-page and other SEO actions, of course)

I'm feel like I should try to convince him to go for quality instead of quantity, but I hesitate since I am not an expert and shouldn't be giving him wrong advice. I'd hate to see him hit by this in the future, he is an honest local business providing a quality service to the neighborhood.

Also, I'm about to get into SEO myself, for an ultra-niche blog that I plan to expand, and I'm wondering which approach to take. I'm going to be here for the long haul, so.... WWYD?

submitted by /u/sambarguy
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from Search Engine Optimization: The Latest SEO News https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/pvp4vt/question_about_garbage_backlinks/>