MORE York and North Yorkshire web surfers have fallen victim to a worldwide computer scam.

The Evening Press has been flooded with telephone calls and emails from readers who have been charged for premium rate phone calls they never made.

Mother-of-three Sharon Finney, 35, of Chapel Walk, Riccall, was shocked when £98-worth of international calls appeared on her telephone bill. When she contacted BT, they said the calls had been made through her computer.

But Sharon said her computer had been disconnected at the time the calls were made, while she decorated her dining room.

Her bill showed about ten calls to the remote African island of Sao Tome, and the Norfolk Isles.

BT told her she must have unwittingly downloaded an automatic dialler onto her computer as she surfed the net. This would dial up numbers and run up large bills without the computer user doing anything.

Sharon's bill has been suspended while the incident is investigated.

"It's frightening. At first I thought there must have been something we had done wrong," she said. "I don't feel like I want to go on the internet any more because I don't know what I am going to be paying for."

John Smith, 63, of Kirkcroft, Wigginton, had a £12.55 charge on his monthly phone bill for a call that he had not made.

British Gas Communications told him the number was for a website which he had not visited.

The company have offered to pay £7.55 towards the cost of the call. John said he was lucky, as he received his bill and spotted the premium rate call just four days after it was made.

Yesterday, the Evening Press reported Harold George, of Hambleton, near Selby, spotted £50 worth of calls to Sao Tome, which he says he never made, on his phone bill.

Updated: 10:40 Thursday, April 15, 2004