Cover letters were required 100 years ago when CVs and resumes had to be delivered by postal mail and the secretary of the company had to direct the CV to the right application and job description, and phone calls or face interviews were not available or practical, because travelling took literally days.

Cover letters are literally a "cover" to a resume saying why are you sending that resume.

Today, that's just the subject of the email with the resume as attachment.

Today, cover letters provide no value to any involved party, and as you can see they can be easily played and manipulated. You're just adding more hoops to your own detriment.