By Mike Boyer
Enquirer staff writer

Virginia Brenner of Mount Orab was shocked a month ago when her long-distance bill had a $30 charge for a three-minute call to Tuvalu.

"I was upset. My husband and I use our cell phones for all our long-distance calls," said Mrs. Brenner, "I don't even know where Tuvalu is."

A number of consumers are finding expensive charges to remote places like the South Pacific atoll on their long-distance bills, according to the Ohio Consumers' Counsel, which said it is seeing a rash of complaints about a long-distance Internet dialing scam.

It works like this: A consumer, using a local dial-up number to surf the Web, inadvertently clicks on a pop-up ad or their computer is infected with a virus while online, which disconnects their local connection and reconnects them using an expensive international phone number.

The consumer may not be aware of the switch until their long-distance bill shows up.

In one case, an Ohio consumer was hit with a $230.72 long-distance bill for a 28-minute call to Tuvalu, said Ryan Lippe, OCC spokesman. He said another Clinton County retiree was hit for several hundred dollars worth of calls to Afghanistan in a single day.

"Be cautious of (computer) pop-up windows, protect your computer from viruses and review your monthly telephone bills for international charges you do not recognize," said Janine Migden-Ostrander, Consumers' Counsel.

One option is to block international or 1-900 calls. For existing Cincinnati Bell customers, 1-900 blocks are free, but there's a $16.10 one-time activation fee for an international call block.

Although some long-distance providers issue one-time credits, the law doesn't require them to do so.

If you think you've been victimized, call the OCC at (877)-742-5622.

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E-mail mboyer@enquirer.com