Different, but still hiring fuckery

Friend applied for a job, database admin, HR called to set-up and interview. Two days later he got an email from the IT department, of that company, telling him that they weren't actually supposed to be responding to applicants for the position. He emailed asking if the posted position had been filled, and then received weirdly worded response saying yes, but implying that it never opened for that particular job post. Then they stopped communicating with him. They were just posting jobs they weren't hiring for.

He passed it all off to a link for, employment law, at the city chamber of commerce. Not that anything would be done.