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.