Ireland is to block direct dial telephone calls to 13 countries, most of them South Pacific nations, in an effort to crack down on growing internet scams.
The order has come from the Irish communications regulator, ComReg.
It says it has received hundreds of complaints from people whose computers have been re-programmed to make expensive calls to the Pacific when accessing the internet.
The nations affected include the Cook Islands, Norfolk Island, Tokelau, Solomon Islands, Wallis and Futuna, Nauru, Tuvalu, Kiribati and French Polynesia.
