I experienced the exact same thing about a week ago. Two accounts from two different "people" connected with me and sent what was essentially the same generic message with slight variations. Possibly bots.
They follow me, then immediately send a connection request with a variation of the same message and similar formatting. Is there a Linkedin growth botting service that's gotten popular recently or something? They also have verified their IDs via CLEAR.
I got a notification today the verification now free and Linkedin invited me to get such a badge. I think Linkedin users just start adding those badges more than they have in the past. Maybe the price and availability is regional or slow rollout.
I'm not really talking about the verification component, moreso the fact that they sent me basically the exact same message.
LinkedIn has an AI built into its chat, so maybe those are just AI generated default messages?
Could be. Still, the fact that they both also followed me makes me wonder, because none of the spammy connections in the past did so.
All of these recruiter types use the same software and automations. So yeah.