I was contacted by recruiter R1, who told me about a position at company C. I had an online interview and while they liked me, they decided I was not fit for the role so we stopped at that. Before the interview I sent the recruiter a declaration of representation, declaring that I had not been told about the role by anyone else, and that I agreed for them to represent me for role with the title X at company C. All true and factual, business as usual.
Literally the next day I was contacted by recruiter R2 (completely different agency), who told me about a very similar role, with title X or a variation of X, at company C. The role and responsibilities are very similar from what I can tell, maybe even identical - let's assume the latter.
I was very clear to R2 that I had already applied to company C days before, but she kept insisting that this role is different from the one before, and the team is different. I do believe her when she says that, because the name of the interviewer for this new role is different, and the team is (or seems to be) indeed different. She also told me explicitly that this role is not for the team I interviewed with last time. On 4 separate calls she insisted that. She also confirmed with my interviewer from the day before that the interview did take place and that the interviewer is happy to recommend me to another team. She told me that company C works with multiple agencies and some roles are represented by some agencies and others by other agencies, and that they have a 2-week exclusive contract for this particular role.
In this second case there was no declaration of representation, but R2 are aware anyway about the situation, so they can't expect me to declare something similar to what I declared with R1.
Honestly I like the company, but I absolutely do not want to get in trouble in any way and I'd rather stay clean and keep looking than damage my reputation. What should I do? I am planning to raise this at the second online interview and see what they say - I'll decide how to phrase my questions so that they give me as much information as possible without disqualifying me as someone unethical.
Update 1: I forgot to mention that I know for a fact that R2 do work with this company and I received emails from them in the past. I even applied to this company months ago, represented by someone from R2, so I do believe they genuinely work together and it's not just an opportunistic and ruthless approach on their behalf (or is it?), but I am still conflicted about the declaration with R1.
