SUNDAY MIRROR: INVESTIGATES Stolen phone?

MEET the small-time businessman who helps mobile phone thieves make a fortune from their crimes.

And conveniently for the muggers who rob people of their handsets on O'Connell Street in Dublin, Alan Donohoe has opened a branch office there.

With no questions asked, Donohoe buys and sells second hand mobiles. And he doesn't care if they are stolen or not.

But now an Irish Sunday Mirror investigation should make sure Donohoe's lucrative little business is cut off.

Sitting behind the counter in his office, Alan wearing a white shellsuit, told us: "We do indeed buy mobile phones. We don't ask any questions - a phone is a phone. It's nicked? No bother at all, no bother."

He carries out his work in a grubby little office in the rundown Carlton Cinema site on O'Connell Street - the street where at least 50 mobile phone thefts are reported every week.

Computer whizkid Donohoe also "fixes" handsets that need unlocking so they can be used with a new sim card and sold on to new, unsuspecting customers.

Each handset in the country is "locked" to a particular network, so when stolen a thief knows the value of the phone goes up if it is "unlocked" so it can be used with any network.

Donohoe also has legitimate clients who need their mobile phones unlocked or bought for perfectly legal reasons.

But he knows how to keep his regular "clients" coming back to him - good business sense says give them a discount, so he does.

For the regulars and new people who have more than one mobile that needs unlocking, he knocks a few euro off the normal EUR20-a-phone fee. He said: "I have the same people come in all time.

"If you told me you were getting so many I always give discounts, once it's over three phones I give it, so expect a discount anyway if it's three or more.

"It's no problem to me, if someone comes in, their phone's locked, wants it unlocked...that's it. Money is money and that's it, you know? Drop in any time."

Donohue runs a while-u-wait service from his office and makes sure people know about his business by pinning posters up around Dublin city centre, including the notice boards in Trinity College.

His advertisements on the internet make his shady dealings look like a legitimate business.

Calling himself GSM Solutions Ltd, Alan offers a full range of services. His site claims: "GSM Solutions was set up primarily to provide comprehensive GSM services.

"We are based in Dublin and for your convenience we have located our new office on O'Connell Street.

Enterprising Donohoe also lists an HQ address as though it is on an industrial estate on the Navan Road - but it actually turns out to be his home near Dublin's North Circular Road.

He buys mobile phones for as little as EUR20 but he will take a top-of-the-range Nokia off you for EUR80.

Once serviced and unlocked he sells them on for a profit of at least EUR100 each. He makes no checks to find out where the seller's phone came from.

A phone security expert in Dublin said: "This is a thieves' charter. By unlocking a phone it gives it more value because it can work on any network.

"When you buy a mobile phone it is locked into the network of the company you bought it from.

"That way the phone can only be used with their network keeping the business with them.

"By unlocking the phone it can be used on any network in the world."

Donohoe's business is not quite a one-man operation. A blonde colleague works closely with him but didn't deal directly with customers.

When an investigator handed over a foreign-registered phone to be unlocked, Donohoe passed it over to the girl to work on while he chatted about his other scams. One of them was a EUR15 book of secret phone codes.

He said: "Basically there's a lot of stuff in there to do with your mobile phone. Such as, do you have a mobile phone, I assume you have a mobile phone, say you have EUR10 credit on it there is a code than can transfer credit from another mobile phone.

"Not just a pay as you go, you can do it on anything.

"The way it works is you put in a code into another mobile phone and for every minute that goes by EUR1.90 goes into credit on your phone."

Unfortunately for our undercover reporter, Alan had sold out of the book but he promised: "I'll have more of them in in a couple of days' time."

Within minutes the phone was unlocked and could now be used with a sim card from any of the Irish networks.

The multi-million euro stolen mobile industry has left Ireland suffering a epidemic of phone theft.

At least 2,000 cases around the country are reported to gardai every week. The victims include Assistant Garda Commissioner Kevin Carty.

Last night Labour's spokesman on justice Joe Costello TD, whose North Dublin constituency includes O'Connell Street, called for gardai to look into Donohue's business.

He said: "The gardai should take an interest in a business like this and let the owner know that activity like that could in fact help criminality.

"I would like to see the authorities take an interest to make sure it's operating fully above board.

"They should see that any business that's operating like that there are proper regulations in place."

Our investigator's dossier is open for gardai to look at.

There is no limited company registered with the company's registry in Dublin known as GSM Solutions Limited.

And it is believed Donohoe uses the name only as a trade name.




Source

findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4161/is_20030720/ai_n12870822/]SUNDAY

My ordeal with "phone shop" Gsmsolutionsltd.com

This is a bit long winded but here goes!

Whilst browsing the net for phone shops in Dublin city I happened upon a site called gsmsolutionsltd.com which advertised a foray of services and products.The site gave me the impression that they were a professional, credible local business. I decided to make a trip here as I was after a new phone with all the bells and whistles.

When I arrived at the shop I was a bit taken aback by its location. It was at the back of a Hotel, down an alleyway and wasn't a shop at all!!. I was confronted with a steel door with a list of office names and the like . I noticed that there was also iron bars on the window adjacent to the door and a small pane of the window smashed in.

I was not too purpturbed at this but it was something that set little alarm bells going off in my head which I chose to ignore at the time. When entering the premises I was lead into a dilapadated hallway by a man named Alan. At the back of the hallway was a table with leaflets scattered on it and two chairs on either side of the table.

I was Shown a reconditioned Nokia phone that the guy ranted and raved about enthustiastally - and it was sim free. It should be noted that the man in the shop told me that it was professionally reconditioned by Nokia and was covered under warranty for 12 months. I paid €219 for it.

Within three weeks of getting it, it started turning off, losing reception, battery going dead after just charging it etc. So i took it back to the shop and was told it would have to be sent away.

Anyway the phone came back and lasted about a month this time before the same thing happened again. So i took it back to the shop and the phone was sent away again.

Getting sick and tired I demanded a replacement phone. The shop owner hummed and guffawed but when I persisted he changed his tune. I decided to go for a new Nokia worth €130 and handsfree worth €89.

Everything was going fine, until the shop owner rang to say that when he had sent the original phone back to Nokia to see what was wrong with it this time, they said it was water damaged!!!!! The shop have now said that because this wasn't a fault with the phone they want to be reimbursed for the new Nokia that was given and the handsfree.....essentially €219.

However, when you consider that I already gave them €219 for the original phone that would be a total of €438!!!!!!


Went into the "shop"/Hallway, and asked if I could speak to the Nokia repair centre. It should be noted that there was another person in the place and I was making a bit of a scene about how disgraceful the whole situation was (sometimes its the only way to make things happen) Hastily, he gave me the number and the reference number of the phone (the shop was very busy at the time and he was obvioulsy anxious to get rid of me!)

The following day, I rang Nokia and enquired about the phone - they said that the phone had been analysed and that it was indeed faulty but that it was a manufacturers fault and not water damaged. Shocked at this I thought I would let the shop owner sweat as it was now confirmed that we had not damaged the phone as we had previoulsy been accused!

About a week later, Gsmsolutionsltd rang back, asking for the money for the phone or they were going to take legal action as "we were in possesion of stolen goods" As i proceeded to tell him about the informative phonecall I had had with Nokia, he started to make excuses that they must have got it wrong and that he would need to make his own enquiries.

An hour later he rang back to say that he had confused our phone with someone elses phone and admitted that the phone we had sent back was indeed faulty!!

I wonder if he would have rang us back and told us this if we had been naive or innocent enough to believe him first day and give him another €219!!

This is an ordeal I Hope never to experience again. The old saying "you should never judge a book by its cover" is true in my opinion but the next time I see a dodgy looking premises I will keep on walking .



source

gsmsolutionsltd.blogspot.com/2009/01/my-ordeal-with-wwwgsmsolutionsltdcom.html

This is a bit long winded but here goes!

Whilst browsing the net for phone shops in Dublin city I happened upon a site called gsmsolutionsltd.com which advertised a foray of services and products.The site gave me the impression that they were a professional, credible local business. I decided to make a trip here as I was after a new phone with all the bells and whistles.

When I arrived at the shop I was a bit taken aback by its location. It was at the back of a Hotel, down an alleyway and wasn't a shop at all!!. I was confronted with a steel door with a list of office names and the like . I noticed that there was also iron bars on the window adjacent to the door and a small pane of the window smashed in.

I was not too purpturbed at this but it was something that set little alarm bells going off in my head which I chose to ignore at the time. When entering the premises I was lead into a dilapadated hallway by a man named Alan. At the back of the hallway was a table with leaflets scattered on it and two chairs on either side of the table.

I was Shown a reconditioned Nokia phone that the guy ranted and raved about enthustiastally - and it was sim free. It should be noted that the man in the shop told me that it was professionally reconditioned by Nokia and was covered under warranty for 12 months. I paid €219 for it.

Within three weeks of getting it, it started turning off, losing reception, battery going dead after just charging it etc. So i took it back to the shop and was told it would have to be sent away.

Anyway the phone came back and lasted about a month this time before the same thing happened again. So i took it back to the shop and the phone was sent away again.

Getting sick and tired I demanded a replacement phone. The shop owner hummed and guffawed but when I persisted he changed his tune. I decided to go for a new Nokia worth €130 and handsfree worth €89.

Everything was going fine, until the shop owner rang to say that when he had sent the original phone back to Nokia to see what was wrong with it this time, they said it was water damaged!!!!! The shop have now said that because this wasn't a fault with the phone they want to be reimbursed for the new Nokia that was given and the handsfree.....essentially €219.

However, when you consider that I already gave them €219 for the original phone that would be a total of €438!!!!!!


Went into the "shop"/Hallway, and asked if I could speak to the Nokia repair centre. It should be noted that there was another person in the place and I was making a bit of a scene about how disgraceful the whole situation was (sometimes its the only way to make things happen) Hastily, he gave me the number and the reference number of the phone (the shop was very busy at the time and he was obvioulsy anxious to get rid of me!)

The following day, I rang Nokia and enquired about the phone - they said that the phone had been analysed and that it was indeed faulty but that it was a manufacturers fault and not water damaged. Shocked at this I thought I would let the shop owner sweat as it was now confirmed that we had not damaged the phone as we had previoulsy been accused!

About a week later, Gsmsolutionsltd rang back, asking for the money for the phone or they were going to take legal action as "we were in possesion of stolen goods" As i proceeded to tell him about the informative phonecall I had had with Nokia, he started to make excuses that they must have got it wrong and that he would need to make his own enquiries.

An hour later he rang back to say that he had confused our phone with someone elses phone and admitted that the phone we had sent back was indeed faulty!!

I wonder if he would have rang us back and told us this if we had been naive or innocent enough to believe him first day and give him another €219!!

This is an ordeal I Hope never to experience again. The old saying "you should never judge a book by its cover" is true in my opinion but the next time I see a dodgy looking premises I will keep on walking .

source forum.gsmhosting.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=387372

Old stock / job lot - 100's of items for quick sale

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the title states..

I have the following items for sale, most are brand new, but some are used. I would prefer to sell as a job lot, but i will be prepared to sell seperatly is required. i can post items to your country or they can be collected in person.

Please PM with an offer, i will accept the first reasonable offer.
QUICK SALE NEEDED AS I AM RUNNING OUT OF ROOM!!!!

Need more details just ask..
I can be contacted directly @
Tel International: 00353 1 8728722.
Mobile International: 00353 86 8645104.
Regards
Alan Donohoe

See image below, i'll throw one of our Caps in to the person who takes all as one lot!


WORKING PCB'S
(Barred in republic of Ireland)
Nokia 6100 x 5
Nokia 3200 x 3
Nokia 3100 x 2
Nokia 6230i x 1
Nokia 7250 x 2
Nokia 7250i x 1
Nokia 6510 x 1
Nokia 3650 x 1
Sagem MyV65 x 1
Sagem MyX5-2 x 1
Motorola V300 x 1
Siemens SL55 x 1
Panasonic x60 x 1
Samsung Zv10 x 1