What's with all the new Linkedin flock I am gathering?

I used to get invitations from numerous people I’d never heard of, asking me to join their Linkedin network of business associates. I always assumed they were just trying to build what appeared to be an impressive array of business relations by stuffing it with strangers. I politely declined.

As far as I know, I did nothing deliberate to trigger the new wave of people suddenly following me. But for the past 2 months, I’ve been getting a deluge of emails from Linkedin saying that so-and-so has accepted your invitation to Connect. What invitation? In that entire time, I have not sent out a single invitation, and I certainly haven’t sent one to someone I’ve never heard of.

Every one of these new Connections are people I do not know from Adam and never intentionally invited to become a Linkedin Connection.

Is Linkedin just playing silly games to try to make itself appear more relevant than it really is in today’s blizzard of social media, or did I somehow inadvertently trigger some algorithm that tries to match me with other members and then invites them on my behalf without my even knowing it’s happening.

Of greater concern, what’s the business impact of having a huge Linkedin “fluther”? From a business perspective, is it likely to be harmful or helpful to inflate my Connections list? For those who don’t know, I’m self employed as a Web developer concentrating on e-commerce and the Yahoo! Merchant Solutions Store platform.