law-abiding citizen

SNS Professional is a huge scam operation running more than one type of scams. Their main operation is a tech support scam that has been reported by a lot of customers (see this page about SNS Professional scam reports). There are several more threads like this with many complaints about SNS Professional’s fraud activities. This scam operation’s main goal seems to be making fast money in any way. This is because they also run a payroll scam operation.

With the strength of cybersecurity nowadays, many scams and illegitimate online operations are stopped or blocked by our browsers. However, there are still some online scams out there that succeed in fooling the best cybersecurity measures. Such scams are very notorious and have the potential to steal any personal information or money by impersonating some huge firm.

For example, IRS and Techsupport scams have been booming for a long time and have no intention to stop anytime soon. They keep finding new ways to get past cybersecurity measures and dupe people. In such situations, it becomes very important to spread awareness so that people know what tactics are being used by the most notorious scams on the internet.

So, here are the top 3 most notorious scams in 2020:

The Covid-19 Scams

Of course, the only thing in a scammer’s mind even in the times of a pandemic is making money via illegal methods. From sending fake offers to asking for fake donations, scammers have yet again found a lot of ways to play with people’s minds and emotions to steal their money and private information.

You might receive emails, calls, or texts claiming to be from the government. They would be talking about Covid-19 checkups and alerts and will ask for your crucial information such as the SSN (Social Security Number). DON’T RESPOND TO SUCH THINGS.

You might receive information or offers about vaccinations or test kits. Ignore them as there is no official vaccination for Covid-19. Plus, only people with visible and repetitive symptoms are tested.

You might receive robocalls offering free Covid-19 tests… avoid them at all costs.

You might receive emails from people impersonating WHO (World Health Organization) and spreading false or unconfirmed information about the virus. Please ignore such emails and only refer to WHO’s official website for any updates about the virus.

You might come across various pages asking for donations for many different causes during this pandemic. Don’t make any transactions on the pages that ask for donations via gift cards or wire transfer. Also, always research the information about a charity organization and make donations on official charity websites.

Most of these Covid-19 scams are focussed on stealing money and others are just focussed on spreading false information to mislead people. Beware of all of these scams in the time of this Covid-19 pandemic.

Tech Support Scams

Tech Support scams are one of the longest-running scams in the world. They mostly operate out of eastern countries and target people in countries such as the USA, Canada, UK, etc. The only thing they are after is money, for which they provide no legitimate services or support. One such scam operates under two names, “SNS Professional” and “ZNS Associates”. SNS Professional or ZNS Associates sends people fake virus alert messages and urges them to call on their number.

One victim stated “I am trying to find out if I have been scammed out of $399.99. The company name is "SNS Professionals or ZnS Associates". At the bottom of the receipt emailed to me is "Malwaribytes Corp, Microsoft Computer Software, Windows Defender, Lifetime Support $399.99". I feel I may be a victim of something I never thought I could be. I would appreciate if you would respond, Thank you in advance for your time”.

Sending robocalls to people saying that their Microsoft services have been expired and that they need to call on their number is another tactic used by many tech support scams including SNS Professional or ZNS Associates.

Ignore any pop-ups or robocalls claiming to be from Microsoft or any other reputed organization and repost those numbers as reputed organizations never call or send pop-ups to their customers.

Payroll Scams

Payroll Scams have boomed in recent times when more and more businesses require payroll software to keep track of their employees and their payouts. They pretend to be a legitimate payroll service providing company and they do provide payroll services, however, they do a little extra that helps only them. A fact that I came across was shocking. SNS Professional aka ZNS Associates don’t only run a tech support scam, they also operate a payroll scam.

ZNS Associates aka SNS Professional offers to provide payroll services to companies at reasonable rates. They do this as a cover-up for their payroll scam operation. The payroll scam process starts when people from SNS Professional and similar organizations receive a business’s employee information such as email IDs, names, salaries, etc.

They then send spoof emails (of employees) to the owners of the businesses and request for some change in their payroll information (bank account details, etc.). Moreover, ZNS Associates aka SNS Professional seems to be the biggest player in this game… just read what BBB alerts about ZNS Associates.

Caution: If you ever receive a call with a recorded voice saying something of the sort “Microsoft has detected that your services are expired/outdated. Call on 1-800-***-**** to take action immediately”, do not call on that number as Microsoft never calls their customers, nor do they request their customers to call them. That number belongs to a Scam operation and while the person on the call might sound polite and helpful, he/she will Scam you.

How I Came To Know About This Scam?

My mother received the above-mentioned robocall with the number 1-800-480-5152. She’s not that tech-savvy, so she decided to consult me regarding the same. I obviously understood that it’s a Scam, however, I decided to call on the number in order to find out more about what they do and how they scam people. Just as I expected, a guy with a hard accent answered the call and represented himself as a Microsoft technician.

I told him that I received a call with a message and he started to explain the whole situation to me. He was talking very politely and sounded very harmless, just what a real technician would sound like. It became more very evident and clear when he used the classic “Hold down the Windows key and hit the letter R”. I knew what was going to happen next and he did exactly what I expected. He told me to type “www.fastsupport.com” in the “Run Box” that popped up after pressing Windows+R.

I asked him “are you a Microsoft technician?”, he replied with full confidence and assurance “Yes, I am a Microsoft technician”. My next question proved that he was straight-up lying. I asked, “When is Windows 11 coming out?”, he immediately replied “15 July 2020”. This is a blatant lie as Microsoft has not announced anything about Windows 11 and they plan on releasing frequent updates for Windows 10 for quite some time. I told him that I knew he was a scammer and hung up.

Who Were These Scammers?

After the call, I was curious and wanted to find out the name of the company that uses the number 1-800-480-5152. I did some digging and found out two names associated to this number, SNS Professional and ZNS Associates. Diving further into the results, I found out a lot of Scam reports about them. One victim stated “I have been scammed by ZNS Associates "lifetime computer support for $399.99". At the bottom of my receipt it notes the names of Malwarbytes, Microsoft Computing Software, Windows Defender, Lifetime Support $399.99”.

Moreover, you have to read what the Better Business Bureau has written about them on their website “The address for this business is not recognized by the US Post Office. Mail was returned by the post office marked "NO SUCH NUMBER". Both websites previously used by the business are registered to an address in Haryana, India and no longer work. BBB has been unable to locate an FBN registration for this business as ZNS Associates Support or SNS Professional Support with San Joaquin County, nor is either business name registered with the California Secretary of State. BBB wrote to the company requesting information on where and how the business is registered. To date, we have not received a response”. Further, BBB confirms that SNS Professional and ZNS Associates are different names of the same organization.