Carphone Warehouse to sell top-ups by text

Carphone Warehouse is to sell mobile phone top-up payments by text message and over the web.

Transactions company Digital Payments signed a deal with the mobile phone reseller to offer the service for its two virtual networks, Fresh and Mobile World.

Customers register for the top-up service on a secure website, then text 'top-up-£10' or 'top-up-£15' to a special Carphone Warehouse number, according to Ian Price, managing director of Digital Payments.

Price said the system is password protected to prevent unauthorised transactions.

He said: "With all password-protected systems, the consumer needs to be sensible."

Digital Payments is a joint venture between card fraud analysis company Retail Decsions, payment processing company Voca (formerly known as Bacs) and Mi-Pay, a micropayments and mobile pre-pay company.

Earlier this year, Retail Decisions released research showing card-not-present fraud - the practice of using cards to buy goods by mail, telephone or internet - rose three-fold last year because chip and PIN technology has made it harder to commit fraud in the shops.