Yes, I wonder about that, too. NSA hasn't been that mysterious about contacting them in decades. Their people have business cards. There was a time when you did something for them and got paid with a check from a furniture store in Maryland. But that was back when the USSR was still a thing. They have a web site now. You can call NSA's main number.[2] The "chain of calls" thing sounds totally fake.

The coffee cup is from the NSA gift shop at the National Cryptologic Museum.

[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/nsa-gift-shop-2016-5#right-a... [2] https://www.nsa.gov/about/contact-us/