A Canadian woman has been told she must pay a telephone bill of 61,000 Canadian dollars (€40,700) even though she denies making the calls.

Nadine Speir was shocked to receive the bill for hundreds of international calls but the telephone company, Bell MTS, insists the charges are valid.

Speir believes it is not fair.

"It's my annual salary, I'm going to have to mortgage my house to pay for it," she said.

"I try to stay calm. I can't believe that there is no other solution and that as a consumer I'm so vulnerable to get a bill like this and all they say is, 'I'm sorry'."

Bell MTS, insists she must pay the bill for the calls which are mostly to Cuba and the Philippines.

Speir said: "It's obviously illogical, I don't think a reasonable person can look at this and think that someone has actually been sitting around making calls."

An independent, national body that works to resolve cases like this says it may be an example of long-distance toll fraud where hackers use people’s voicemail to get in and use their phone line.