I discovered that in the 1980s and 1990s.
A company would do a proposal for a major contract, government or big business. Part of the requirement was to determine the ‘pool’ of potential area employees with specified qualification. To do that, the company would run job ads in the local papers.
The jobs did not really exist, but they were potential should the proposing company get the contract.
It was/is a common practice. Deceptive, yes.
They do this scam on Craigslist. They would collect resumes and used them to get info about you for marketing purposes. Many years ago, I learned NEVER to put my real address and used a nickname similar to my first name on the resume.
In my industry back in the day I used headhunters to hire employees who had the specific technical skills and experience we needed.
When I decided to “make a move” I went to one of the best headhunters and he got it done for me—quickly and easily.