A NEWPORT businesswoman is warning of a premium rate line con that has left her hundreds of pounds out of pocket.

Danielle Sheahan, the owner of the West Usk Lighthouse bed and breakfast at St Brides, was using the internet when a computer virus connected her to an 0900 number abroad.

Without her realising, she amassed a bill of £329 and BT said she is now liable to pay.

BT has warned there are several "rogue dial-up" cons that connect internet users to 0900 numbers through a virus which downloads on to computers.

Mrs Sheahan said: "I'm going to dispute it when the bill arrives.

"People should be aware of this con. To stop it happening again, I have since put a bar on my phone line to stop all calls to 0900 numbers.

"BT will have to take me to court because I'm not paying."

Mrs Sheahan became aware of the situation when the BT local business account management team in Newport contacted her to see if she knew about her high usage of an 0900 number.

The team looks after 15,000 small businesses in South Wales and contacts all customers who have unusually high rates of premium rate calls.

A BT spokesman said all customers could request a 0900 call block to ensure no premium rate numbers could be called up without a pin number being entered first.

He said: "We can suspend a disputed part of a bill for six weeks but we cannot waive the bill as we have already paid out the money to the internet service provider.

"There are hundreds of premium rate numbers but only a small percentage operate illegally."

The spokesman said one of the premium rate line rogue dial-ups was traced to Scandinavia.

He said the premium rate line watchdog ICSTIS was responsible for clamping down on 0900 numbers being operated illegally.

He warned internet users to beware of pop-up boxes appearing on the screen as trying to close them down could initiate the downloading of a virus that called the 0900 number.