If you get any amount of work from recruiters they always called your references and/or your past jobs.

I’ve given a handful of people permission to use me as a reference and every single time, that person goes hunting and will work with 2-5 recruiters over the course of their job hunt and from each and every one I’ll get a 20 minute call where they grill me about the candidate. It’s kinda exhausting as somebody who isn’t in charge of hiring/firing.