to do next, contact your bank or a reputable technical-support professional through an official channel.

The key is to pause before responding. In an era of increasingly convincing AI-generated scams, a message that looks or sounds real still deserves a closer look.

Editor's note: The supplied script spells the NordVPN representative's name two ways - Gerald Casillas in the introduction and Gerald Kasulis in the quote attribution. Confirm the correct spelling before publication.