Here’s an interesting scenario: Someone somehow manages to get your credit card number (of course you would never fall for a phisher’s bait… your virus, spyware and firewall software are all up-to-date… you don’t leave your card lying around… and who uses paper credit card transaction receipts any more to be found in the garbage?…but somehow they get your credit card number…) and they go to Fry’s and try to by a gross of radio pens.

The MasterCard system, noting the attempt at the unusually high charge of $15,588 from Frys in Sunnyvale, California, when you oridinarly only ever shop at Comp USA in Boston, attempts to alert you.

So far this scenario is not terribly new…the credit card giant has always attempted to protect its users from fraud - after all, user losses often turn into MasterCard losses.

But here is what is different: u r going 2 get a txt msg on ur phone… [Continued...]