I've had people tell me that I "faked" my portfolio. If I did, then I am a diabolical genius, and you should hire me, because I did such an amazing job, faking tens of thousands of lines of single-author code; maintaining a consistent style, throughout, along with dozens and dozens of articles, blog entries, and documentation examples. Extra credit for "faking" years and years of checkin comments. Since I sign my commits, it's not difficult to figure out who did what.

I suspect some scammer was running a game on you. They tend to go "over the top," as "dumbass filters." If someone responds credulously to an outrageous claim, then they are a "good mark." The fact they ghosted you, tells me it was a scam. I have encountered many, many scammers, since leaving my last job. It's a pretty tough field, these days.

One of the reasons that I stopped looking for work, was because a lot of hiring managers and recruiters believe that it's important to insult applicants, right out of the starting gate. I think that HR policy, in general, these days, is to always keep the applicant in a supplicant position, so you are in control of the relationship. I think that LeetCode tests are part of that game. Sort of like "hazing."