Empty backlinks?

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I'm checking out a competitors backlinks. Yahoo returns approximately 1400 links for this competitor. However, when I check the pages they are being linked from, I do not see a link to them anywhere. I have searched the source code for this site as well and am coming up empty there as well. I'm finding this on most of the links I check on. What could be the reason?
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How are you checking Yahoo? Yahoo site explorer doesn't exist anymore my friend. I use Majestic SEO now

Just using the link: designation in the search query.

I think Yahoo will not give you best result, you should go to some other.