a lot of job listings are fake, yes. as in their is a legit job, but the person they will hire for it will be someone's kid who already works there, or another insider/connection. all external candidates will be ignored and are essentially throwing their application into the void.

for a lot of companies the job process is about telling themselves and the world they aren't playing favorites, but they 100% are hiring the person with the connection who is less qualified than external candidates.

i remember in college/grad school, they had to publicly list all the research/assistant jobs, but the only people who got them were internal candidates who who already students, so basically 100% of those job listings were 'fake' and while they might interview a few applicants, anyone who applied was never going to get the job.