If you read the button it's not an CTA to connect with her but a CTA to invite her to LinkedIn. She would then get an email basically saying "Uncle Uptown would like you to join LinkedIn!"
Agree it's scummy and they are mixed in with actual folks on LinkedIn but they are not creating shadow profiles.
This is on mobile. It shows her name, her email address, and a circular button with a human silhouette and a plus symbol on it. All in a section titled "People you may know". The implication is absolutely that she is a user of the site.
IIRC there was one very subtle difference on mobile to differentiate users vs. non-users, but it was something easily overlooked. On desktop it's slightly more obvious, but still misleading IMO.
Agree it's scummy and they are mixed in with actual folks on LinkedIn but they are not creating shadow profiles.