But keep your red hot fingers off my heart

Urgh. Feeling this rubbish with a cold, for this long, ought not to be allowed.

However, while I've been lying in bed, whinging, my credit card's been off having fun.

MBNA rang me yesterday, and explained there were some suspicious transactions on my card. Before going into details, they'd need me to answer some security questions. Oh dear, here we go again...

( The usual security rigmarole )

And yes, it seems my card has been off having fun at iTunes and Napster. Not a huge amount of fun, though - three songs, which totals about £3.

What I want to know is how did the credit card company spot it as suspicious ? Admittedly, I don't buy music from iTunes but it's the sort of thing that I might very plausibly do. I do buy downloadable music online occasionally, and MBNA probably don't know that I'd rather eat my own foot than use iTunes.

I've no idea what information iTunes (or any other online retailer) might log which would make it possible to deduce the purchaser wasn't me. And if they thought the transaction suspicious, wouldn't they stop it at the point of sale ?

I guess the heuristics used are kept secret by the credit card companies, just to make it harder to work round them. But does anyone have a clue how it works ?

They called her the woman who did not care

I just popped downstairs to make myself yet another hot drink, when I heard a ferocious clanging, as of a school bell signalling the end of playtime. I went to look out of the window, fearing that, in view of my recent state of health, someone might have sent the plague-cart round.

So I can now - only a few years late - answer a question that was posed on here:

( You *do* get rag-and-bone men round 'ere )