Hi
similar experience here at my office.
The Skype plugin to explorer is the problem.
On the IE 7 toolbar look far to the right for the Skype Icon. It may hide behind the >>.
Chose to remve the Skype plugin from the IE.
This has worked for us, skype still runs on its own but does not try to to pars all web page content looking for phone numbers.
Regards
/Jakob