Are the 'phantom' posting journals you are referring to the 'error' posting journals? These are written to every time there are posting errors of some sort, resulting in some entries being written to an error batch. When you begin to print the posting journal, there may be a checkbox selection to print the error posting journal - if you de-select this choice, does this resolve the problem?

When it comes time to purging the posting journal, this error posting journal will be purged along with it.