What are these recruiters you all talk about? Are these some middlemen you contract to get you a job? Like an athlete's/actor's agent?
I only had experience with recruiters who work for the organisation I'm interviewing for. None of this contact info / skills tampering makes sense in that context.
Post your resume on one of the really big job boards like Dice or Indeed and you'll see what we're talking about. Last time I did that I was getting 4 or 5 calls a day. Most of those recruiters were from the same three companies and you could safely rule them out because they would ask for your SSN. But anyone who calls you and tries to establish a personal relationship might be worth working with.
Rather than wait for applications, some companies will hire third party recruiters to find candidates to apply. Some will have in-house recruiters doing the same. If they find a successful candidate, they're paid with commission. Sometimes, being contacted by one is the only way to apply.
I've worked with several recruiters who are trying to shop around as an outsourced recruiter. Basically, they take your resume and slap their name on it in an effort to show companies "You should use me because I provide well-qualified talent."
If you're not going through internal recruitment then this is a great way to go about it. The recruiter isn't just trying to get their 20%, so they spend a lot more time getting to know you and also getting to know where you're going.
The biggest down side is that you'll never hear a negative word about anything, so you gotta be good at asking some pointed questions.
I only had experience with recruiters who work for the organisation I'm interviewing for. None of this contact info / skills tampering makes sense in that context.