Advice Needed

I have been working in SEO for 10 years, and have just began helping a client flush out their marketing strategy because they are going into a growth phase and basically need an overhaul. The team they are working with has quite a few issues, but one I am not sure if its an issue or just an approach I haven't seen before (though I have an idea of which way it goes). They are creating backlinks by posting long articles and comments to free sites. These sites have nothing to do with the brand. For instance, the brand sells car parts and they are posting articles to sites like Media Mavens. I have asked them to stop this practice until I gain some clarity, but I want to get some opinions here. Is this the proper way to backlink? It seems like anyone could create a bunch of profiles and make their own backlinks across the web, but I know marketing is a broaaaad field, and I might just not know about this approach. Thanks!