Those were real companies.
The conversation started online and immediately moved in-person.
I was never asked to install anything.
I was not even given code access (without NDA) and I did get paid with equity/money in cases there was a mutual match and we proceeded.
Oh god, thanks for the heads up. It's a wonder how many people fell for it, definitely non-zero I reckon. I would hate for this to become a thing on LinkedIn.