It’s not malice though, it’s cold, unfeeling greed. Malice implies they want to cause harm; all they want is to extract maximum profit. Sometimes it’s by being malicious, sometimes it’s by being altruistic, for instance pretending to care about an oppressed minority in order to improve their image. The only decision is “will the cost of this action be less than the profit it makes?”
That is the trouble with relying on recruiters, there’s essentially no bar to entry so the industry is flooded with talentless chancers