I bought a domain which has received a Google Pr penalty. I didn't knew that. Only after buying the domain i realized that it has received a page rank penalty. The domain was perfect and had 17 backlinks when searched using Google. Now i am wondering what to do. please help
So you have to increase its page ank again but if you bought it with a higher page rank - you have to talk with seller and have to be carefull while buying. Look google info - look archive for a fake PR and check index pages / backlinks. But , sure , after all pagerank updates you have to think it may decrease / may be zero.
No, you cannot mention the present situation to anyone. Nobody would care. If you bought the domain with PR3 and it was banned recently, you can try to go for a refund. However, if you already bought it with PR0 (which I think is the case) you have to back down and just start it all over again. Go to Yahoo Site Explorer and research the backlinks. If you find something suspicious, contact the webmaster and ask to remove a link - however, this is not too important. It is more important to remove any outgoing links you have now - just remove them without any sorting and considerations. Because there might be a chance the guy who sold it to you, had been selling links. But basically, you just have to develop a fair and good backlink strategy, develop the content and go for quality and relevant backlinks. I once had a client with a PR0 site and just by sorting out his content and adding some good incoming links, it is now PR3. If a site is banned, it doesn't mean it should stay banned for ages. Just, when you have updated the content and added some strong incoming AND outgoing links, submit it page by page to Google and Yahoo and add some links to Digg and Stumble. You should also be using the G Webmaster Tools - it will give you some diagnostic tips to what is wrong with your pages. And give it some time - it won't happen overnight. Next time think before you buy.
Make yourself a little clearer, did you buy the domain as a PR3? How long ago was this? Did you buy the domain on the basis of PR ranking? What payment processor did you use?
I have to agree with Money Moose here. Submitting a reconsideration request with Google stating the site is under new ownership and that you have removed any offending link will probably do the trick. Google isn't quite the big bully that everyone makes out. Let us know how you get on.