Customers will be able to use text messages to answer questions about credit card usage.

MasterCard has joined with mBlox, a service provider of mobile messaging infrastructure, to add an SMS option to its Aristion fraud detection system and is making Aristion Communicator available to banks beginning Wednesday.

MasterCard, in Purchase, New York, and mBlox, with primary locations in both London and San Francisco, are first rolling out Aristion Communicator in Europe due to the high use of mobile phones across the continent and in the U.K.

The credit card company expects to make Aristion Communicator available in Asia and throughout the Americas by the end of the year, Gerber says.

MasterCard is advising that banks offer the SMS service to its customers on an opt-in basis. Customers who want to take part in the service must then go through a registration process. Once registered, customers will be contacted by SMS should a high-risk transaction be detected, and can then either approve the transaction or block it.

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