Creating multiple websites using very similar EMDs. Safe or not?

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

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  Robert Humphries: I hope someone can give me a definitive answer on this:
  
  I have a web-dev client who is adamant about creating multiple websites using very similar EMDs even thought he content between his websites is contextually similar to an extreme. ; Many of his websites even have the same phone numbers and no physical addresses displayed. ; He keeps asking me to churn out more and more sites with "original" content, but it is becoming impossible. ;
  
  Every site describes the exact same company and exact same business offerings regardless of the words are rearranged. ; I have repeatedly told my client that he needs to wind down and focus on one website, but his company serves multiple states (though he only one physical address).
  
  So, my question is this: ; Is he eventually going to face the wrath of Google?
• 
  Robert Humphries: Let me just add that he has about two-dozen such sites.
• 
  Tim Capper: If he has not already, he will.
  
  This might help convince him : ;https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2721311?hl=en
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  Robert Humphries: Thanks, Tim. ; Do you mind if I forward his web addresses to you just so you can get a better idea of what I'm dealing with? ; I don't think it is professional to paste his addresses here.
• 
  Matt Benson: Some duplicate content won't hurt in certain circumstances.
  http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2319706/Googles-Matt-Cutts-A-Little-Duplicate-Content-Wont-Hurt-Your-Rankings
  
  I still wouldn't do what you described though. What's the point?
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  Robert Humphries: Thanks, Matt. ; Same question I asked of Tim. ; Do you mind if I forward the links to you so that you can get a better idea of how extreme this is getting?
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  AMA DataSet: Personally I'd say that if they are similar, Google will have already dropped them from the results for users searches and will only be displaying one, but I'm guess it will vary which  ;depending on location. but there is in fact no to little value in having these multiple sites. ;
  
  I cant say for sure if he would be hit due to the extreme number of sites because I've never tested this myself but I can see a few reasons in your brief why he might. Such as EMD algo and a possible panda issue depending on how unique the content is.
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  Matt Benson: +Robert Humphries ;Honestly, no thanks. I don't really have time to review a bunch of similar sites just to tell you what you already know. Again, what is the point? Seriously, ask the guy that. Why is he wanting all those similar sites? What does he think it's going to accomplish? Then when he answers, just tell him no. That's not how it works. Set him straight and then tell him if he still wants to pay you for stuff that doesn't work then you'll be happy to still do it. Just don't come crying later when the intended objective doesn't happen.
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  Tim Capper: Some duplicate wont be a problem, but it was mentioned that there was a dozen already, this is a problem !
  
  The other question is, are any of the sites actually ranking for their intended keywords ?
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  SeoWix: on some extent the damages can be reduced if all sites have different templates and hosted on different IPs. the idea is, let google not to recognize the foot prints. ;
  what google webmaster describe in above shared link is about  ;funnel or door way pages. they are different than having multiple websites and not redirecting their traffic to one single website. in your case it seem all websites are stand alone sites and do not redirect traffic to one single website.
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  Jim Munro: Good luck with using different IPs to fool Googlebot. :)
  
  I am sorry to disagree with you, SEOWix, but I remember cases like this 3-4 years ago requesting help on the Google Webmaster forums.
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  Tony McCreath: I had a client doing the EMD stuff. I reviewed the traffic they got (close to zero) and then she was happy to drop that cost. 
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  Devin Peterson: I've dealt with this problem with car dealers. They all want sites that resemble www.theircardealer(insertsmalltown) . com and have like twenty of them. Just show them some analytics reports that indicate there is no gain in traffic from this whatsoever and probably actually hurts it since you're wasting time on lots of things that don't help.