Anatomy of an Amazon Hard Disk Scam (GAZELLE)
My friend got scammed by a seller on Amazon named “No Doubt” who sold a very old, used Seagate hard disk as new.
I was helping do some testdisk/photorec data recovery for my friend. Since I am not a professional I don’t have all the hardware tools. The most important of which is a spare hard disk. So I asked my friend to get me one. He ordered on Amazon and I received a brand new 500 GB hard disk drive manufactured and marketed by “NO DOUBT ROADPALI KALAMBOLI Maharashtra - 410218”.
When I opened the package, I got a card which asked to leave a review in return of a free hard drive carrying case.
That was red flag 1.
When I started copying some files into the hard disk, it started making noises. And the copying randomly failed. Red flags 2 and 3.
So, in situations like these, we can use smartctl -a /dev/sdb (where sdb is the device) to check the “Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology” status. I did it for this hard disk and discovered that it was a used, failing seagate harddisk.
So, that’s the scam.
What can you do to protect yourself?
The good old Mozilla has an add-on called fakespot which warns you about fake reviews and bad sellers. Install that while shopping. Fakespot.com
Attached below you’ll find more details about the scammers, and the smartctl output.
Scammer details
Their customer care number 9702822629 and their email: nodoubtindia@gmail.com.
Review bribe content
“Thank you for choosing our portable hard drive! We hope you’re enjoying it. We’d love to hear your feedback. Please leave a review by: Going to your order history. Finding the Portable Hard Drive order. Clicking “Write a product review.” As a thank you, we’ll send you a free External Hard Drive Carrying Case! After leaving review, reply with your order number and a screenshot of the review to WhatsApp: +91 97028 22629. If you need help, contact our customer service team. Thank you for your support! Best regards, Customer service.
There was also a contact card kind of thing which said “1 year hardware warranty” with the same whatsapp number as technical support. The product name “New- Gazelle high speed …(Black) 1 year warranty”
SMART output
$ sudo smartctl -a /dev/sdc
7.4 2023-08-01 r5530 [x86_64-linux-6.12.9-zen1-1-zen] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-23, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Seagate Laptop HDD
Device Model: ST500LM021-1KJ152
Serial Number: W62DN55C
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 09c84b466
Firmware Version: 0005SDM1
User Capacity: 500,107,862,016 bytes [500 GB]
Sector Sizes: 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate: 7200 rpm
Form Factor: 2.5 inches
Device is: In smartctl database 7.3/5528
ATA Version is: ATA8-ACS T13/1699-D revision 4
SATA Version is: SATA 3.0, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is: Mon Jan 20 20:57:01 2025 IST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x00) Offline data collection activity
was never started.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: ( 0) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x73) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
No Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 1) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 77) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
SCT capabilities: (0x1035) SCT Status supported.
SCT Feature Control supported.
SCT Data Table supported.
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x000f 097 097 006 Pre-fail Always - 240493525
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0003 099 098 000 Pre-fail Always - 0
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 097 097 020 Old_age Always - 3876
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 097 097 036 Pre-fail Always - 584
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000f 078 060 030 Pre-fail Always - 17472697843
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 092 092 000 Old_age Always - 7049 (181 188 0)
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 100 097 Pre-fail Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 097 097 020 Old_age Always - 3808
184 End-to-End_Error 0x0032 100 100 099 Old_age Always - 0
187 Reported_Uncorrect 0x0032 001 001 000 Old_age Always - 183
188 Command_Timeout 0x0032 090 001 000 Old_age Always - 163211248533
189 High_Fly_Writes 0x003a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022 062 048 045 Old_age Always - 38 (Min/Max 38/40)
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 718
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 35
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 071 071 000 Old_age Always - 58423
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 038 052 000 Old_age Always - 38 (0 18 0 0 0)
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0012 091 091 000 Old_age Always - 193
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0010 091 091 000 Old_age Offline - 193
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x003e 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
240 Head_Flying_Hours 0x0000 093 093 000 Old_age Offline - 6893 (132 13 0)
241 Total_LBAs_Written 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 28644572412
242 Total_LBAs_Read 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 40673347330
254 Free_Fall_Sensor 0x0032 001 001 000 Old_age Always - 49
SMART Error Log Version: 1
ATA Error Count: 109 (device log contains only the most recent five errors)
CR = Command Register [HEX]
FR = Features Register [HEX]
SC = Sector Count Register [HEX]
SN = Sector Number Register [HEX]
CL = Cylinder Low Register [HEX]
CH = Cylinder High Register [HEX]
DH = Device/Head Register [HEX]
DC = Device Command Register [HEX]
ER = Error register [HEX]
ST = Status register [HEX]
Powered_Up_Time is measured from power on, and printed as
DDd+hh:mm:SS.sss where DD=days, hh=hours, mm=minutes,
SS=sec, and sss=millisec. It "wraps" after 49.710 days.
Error 109 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 7049 hours (293 days + 17 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
40 51 00 00 1e 02 00 Error: UNC at LBA = 0x00021e00 = 138752
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
60 00 ef 11 1e 02 40 00 00:00:19.408 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 01 10 1e 02 40 00 00:00:19.407 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 01 0f 1e 02 40 00 00:00:19.407 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 01 0e 1e 02 40 00 00:00:19.407 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 01 0d 1e 02 40 00 00:00:19.407 READ FPDMA QUEUED
Error 108 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 7049 hours (293 days + 17 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
40 51 00 00 1e 02 00 Error: WP at LBA = 0x00021e00 = 138752
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
61 00 00 00 3b 8e 40 00 01:00:15.000 WRITE FPDMA QUEUED
61 00 00 00 37 8e 40 00 01:00:15.000 WRITE FPDMA QUEUED
61 00 00 00 33 8e 40 00 01:00:14.974 WRITE FPDMA QUEUED
61 00 00 00 2f 8e 40 00 01:00:14.974 WRITE FPDMA QUEUED
61 00 00 00 2b 8e 40 00 01:00:14.974 WRITE FPDMA QUEUED
Error 107 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 7049 hours (293 days + 17 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
40 51 00 00 1e 02 00 Error: UNC at LBA = 0x00021e00 = 138752
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
60 00 ff 01 1e 02 40 00 00:57:29.101 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 01 00 1e 02 40 00 00:57:29.101 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 00 00 6d 25 40 00 00:57:23.359 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 01 ff 68 25 40 00 00:57:21.010 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 01 fe 68 25 40 00 00:57:21.010 READ FPDMA QUEUED
Error 106 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 7049 hours (293 days + 17 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
40 51 00 00 1e 02 00 Error: UNC at LBA = 0x00021e00 = 138752
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
60 00 e8 18 1e 02 40 00 00:56:08.580 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 01 17 1e 02 40 00 00:56:08.580 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 01 16 1e 02 40 00 00:56:08.580 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 01 15 1e 02 40 00 00:56:08.580 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 01 14 1e 02 40 00 00:56:08.580 READ FPDMA QUEUED
Error 105 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 7049 hours (293 days + 17 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
40 51 00 00 1e 02 00 Error: UNC at LBA = 0x00021e00 = 138752
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
60 00 00 00 1e 02 40 00 00:55:38.308 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 00 00 a3 00 40 00 00:55:31.699 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 00 00 9f 00 40 00 00:55:31.698 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 00 00 9b 00 40 00 00:55:31.698 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 00 00 97 00 40 00 00:55:31.698 READ FPDMA QUEUED
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error
# 1 Short offline Completed without error 00% 1 -
SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
1 0 0 Not_testing
2 0 0 Not_testing
3 0 0 Not_testing
4 0 0 Not_testing
5 0 0 Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.
The above only provides legacy SMART information - try 'smartctl -x' for more