No, we do not take the boosted Connects you bid in placebo auctions. We do take the Connects used to apply to the job, because the job post is still real and your proposal was still submitted, just ranked organically.
If you boost in a placebo auction, you’ll see a message explaining that your proposal has not been boosted and that the job was randomly chosen to not have any proposals be boosted to the top of the list.
The proposal will also say “Not boosted” when you view it in Active proposals, so you will know that no Connects were taken for the boost.