Banks and Merchants Reload for Fee Battle

By ROBIN SIDEL and VICTORIA MCGRANE

Banks and credit unions are using a recent
debit-card scam at Michaels Stores Inc. as fresh ammunition in their
fight against a federal proposal to reduce the amount they can charge
merchants for processing such payments.

The new attack is aimed at part of the Dodd-Frank financial-overhaul
law enacted last year that limits the fees banks can charge retailers
each time a consumer swipes a debit card. The measure has pitted banks
against merchants and has been one of the most contested provisions of
the financial overhaul law on Capitol Hill.

Getty Images

A data breach at Michaels
Stores, whose logo on a shopping-cart child’s seat is seen here, is the
latest flash point over debit-card fees.

The
debit-fee measure requires the Federal Reserve to write a rule
restricting what are called swipe fees. The central bank issued a draft
proposal in December, capping the fees at 12 cents a transaction for
large banks, down from the current average of 44 cents.

Banks have assailed the proposal, in part because they say it doesn’t
take into account the cost of losses that result from a bank data theft
or breach. Customers aren’t liable for unauthorized debit
transactions; those costs are typically absorbed by the bank that issued
the plastic. In a survey, the Fed estimated that industry-wide fraud
losses to all parties involved in a debit transaction in 2009 were about
$1.4 billion, while roughly $15.7 billion in debit swipe-fee revenue
was collected.

Now, banks have a handy, real-world example to use in their argument.
Industry lobbyists said they have raised the Michaels breach with
several lawmakers in recent meetings as they push for legislation
delaying the debit-fee rule. “It has gotten their attention,” said one
of the lobbyists, Camden Fine, head of the Independent Community Bankers
of America.

Michaels, an Irving, Texas, chain of arts-and-crafts stores, this
month said thieves had collected customer debit-card data by altering
the devices that they use to swipe their cards. The thieves stole
personal-identification numbers, created duplicate cards and withdrew
cash from customer bank accounts.

Though Michaels said fewer than 100 customers have reported
fraudulent transactions, the company said it found that equipment had
been compromised at 80 stores in 20 states. As a result, banks have been
reissuing cards and taking calls from customers worried that their
accounts could be at risk.

The situation at Michaels just “illustrates the point that customers
who have their account information breached can get that money back from
the banks because of the way the debit-card product works today,” said
one executive at a big bank.

More

• 
  
  SmartMoney: Latest Scam Highlights Risks for Debit-Card Users
  

Fraud costs won’t go away when the Fed caps
swipe fees, banks say, so they will have to find other ways to address
those costs, such as raising fees on consumers and eliminating rewards
programs. Banks have said they may protect themselves from fraud losses
by capping debit-card transactions at $50 or $100. They haven’t said
they would stop reimbursing consumers.

The National Association of Federal
Credit Unions sent a letter Monday to Senate leaders urging them to
support a bill that would delay the start of the proposed debit-fee
rule, which is scheduled to take effect in July. The letter cited
comments from John Menzer, chief executive of Michaels, who encouraged
customers to consult their banks if they were concerned about
unauthorized charges.

“This is a prime example of the role that debit interchange plays in
ensuring the payment system operates smoothly and efficiently for
consumers and financial institutions,” wrote Dan Berger, executive vice
president at the credit-union trade group.

“These issues aren’t being dealt with by Michaels. They are being
dealt with by the card issuers,” Mr. Berger added in an interview.

The retail industry is pushing back.
Retail officials say in many cases banks make merchants cover the cost
of fraud incidents. Retailers say they also have invested billions of
dollars helping to plug security holes while the banks refuse to take a
step that, according to retailers, would make the system far safer:
Issuing consumers cards embedded with computer chips, which retailers
claim are less vulnerable to fraud than debit cards that require a
signature.

“Their argument that they need even more swipe fees to protect the
system they’re not already protecting is really just a load of bull,”
said Mallory Duncan, senior vice president and general counsel for the
National Retail Federation, a trade group.

The effort to delay the fee rule faces
the biggest challenge in the Senate, where Sen. Richard Durbin (D.,
Ill.)—author of the provision—is the No. 2 Democrat and any measure must
get 60 votes to overcome a potential filibuster. Mr. Durbin, backed by
retailers, is fiercely resisting efforts to delay the debit-fee rule. He
has repeatedly blasted regulators for raising what he calls
“speculative” concerns that the debit-fee measure will hurt small banks
and credit unions, which are technically exempt from the fee cap.

Lobbyists say a delay-bill written by Sen. Jon Tester (D., Mont.) is
close to having enough votes, but that he may need to scale it down from
a two-year delay to a one-year delay to get it over the 60-vote
threshold.

—Ann Zimmerman contributed to this article.

Write to Robin Sidel at Robin.Sdel@wsj.com and Victoria McGrane at Victoria.McGrane@wsj.com.

Copyright 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement
and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies,
please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit

www.djreprints.com

http://www.calleridspoofing.info/

AV Voice Changer Software – AV VCS 4.0 Basic Edition

Voice
Changer Software is a unique program for online and offline real-time
voice alteration,
AV VCS 4.0 Basic Edition allows you to instantly change voice over
Internet and PC Phone; Talk in male, female, teen, baby voice to have
online fun in chat room;
Create many voices for movie; Also change music; Record chat,
phone, internet radio, music; Add effects to enhance
voice or background; Compare changed voice to another’s voice for
simulation purpose; Compatible with YIM, MSN,
AOL, ICQ, PalTalk, Odigo, Netmeeting, Roger Wilco, and media
players, CD players, Karaoke players.

AV Voice Changer Software changes voice to unlimited
number of different voices, either man, woman, young, elderly, teen or
kid in voice chat and internet phone. It also changes voice of
song, narration, voiceover, internet broadcast, karaoke
singing. The advanced pitch-timbre changing algorithm helps
produce natural and realtime voice output;
and realtime effects add taste and feel to voice and music. AV
Voice Changer Software includes an MP3 player
and a multistream recorder, both support multi audio formats
including mp3, wma, wav, ogg, ape, nist, aif, mp2, irc, au.

AV Voice Changer Software stands apart from other online or computer voice changers for its unlimited ability
to disguise. Get this versatile online voice changer software download here, and explore its voice changer,
voice simulator, and chat recorder… for new online “affairs”.

AV Voice Changer Software Features Comparison

Download Trial 6.24 MB
       

Order Now $29.95 $28.45 USD

Software Information		System Requirements
Version:	4.0.50 Basic Edition	Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP. Full Duplex Sound Card Pentium II or higher compatible processor. 64 MB RAM
File Size:	6.24 MB
License:	Free to try, $28.45 to buy
Screenshot:	View Screenshot
Rating :

Voice Changer Software – AV VCS 4.0 Basic Edition Features:

• Changes in real time the voice, either from a microphone, CD,
  line-in, or auxiliary input, into hundreds of high-quality female and
  male voices, animal, musical and fiction sounds.
• Compatible with voice chat rooms, voice instant messengers,
  audio & video conferencing, and PC-to-phone programs. You can
  disguise your voice to be anonymous on the Net.
• Compatible with the standard sound recorders, sound players, CD and Karaoke players. With AV VCS, you can edit
  various voices, sound files, sound effects for your audio & video clips and movies, you can morph songs or MP3 files
  and create your own albums.
• Morphs in real time the WaveOut and DirectX streams.
• Has a small pack of ready-to-use audio effects and nickvoices.
• Voice output can be customized by setting the desired equalization.
• Along with the pitch algorithm, an additional timbre
  shifting algorithm helps you change your voice into a comprehensive
  range of high-quality new natural voices controlling the “age” and
  “gender” of the voice output.
• AV VCS can intercept and change not only the recording but
  also the playback and DirectX audio streams. You can morph sound files,
  for example MP3 files played on a sound player installed on your system.
• You can add effects from one hundred and forty of plug-in
  ready-to-use audio effects to a real-time voice stream from a microphone
  to a sound file, an MP3 composition, or a CD track played back on a
  sound player or CD player.
• A combination of pitch/timbre, effects and equalization
  settings is used for creating new nickvoices that can be saved for
  future use.
• AV VCS has its own sound Recorder which makes it easy for
  you to record and save in wave format your conversations, morphed voice
  messages, as well as modified songs.
• AV VCS has a built-in Voice Comparator – you can morph your voice into the voices of famous artists and singers.
• AV VCS can automatically generate names for new recordings and save them in the folder that you have selected.
• AV VCS has a built-in sound Player – to play back the recorded in AV VCS Recorder data.
• In the default skin, the pitch and timbre settings are graph-represented allowing easier tuning.

Functional Peculiarities of Voice Changer Software 4.0 Basic Edition:

• AV VCS uses its installation folder as default folder to store all user settings.
• You can save the settings for the Equalizer and load them at any time you need.
• Automatic loading of suitable settings for different streams based on the stream rate parameters.
• AV VCS has nickvoices that include pitch/timbre/advanced
  tune, equalizer and effects settings along with settings for different
  streams.
• Selecting several effects at a time with the possibility of grouping effects by category name.
• All the effects are grouped by categories, composing a comfortable tree structure to work with.
• “Reset” buttons to clear all settings.
• You can save selected effects to an external file so that next time you can easily restore them by just clicking “Load” button.
• AV VCS has a built-in update manager. As long as VCS has
  been launched, update manager starts seeking for updates. If a new
  update is found, user will be prompted to download it. Autoupdate
  feature can be switched off but user can start update manager manually
  at any time.
• AV VCS is equipped with Stream Settings pane to make it easier for a user to shift stream types.
• AV VCS has a built-in Voice Comparator – you can morph your voice into the voices of famous artists and singers.
• AV VCS has a “Select microphone on start up” option. If
  this option is enabled, VCS selects microphone and adjusts its optimum
  volume level in system mixer.

What’s New in Voice Changer Software AV VCS 4.0 Basic Edition:

• Improved Voice morpher algorithm.
• New nice-looking skin with a simplified interface and new plugin architecture.
• More easy-to-use Voice Morpher graph.
• “Reset” buttons to clear all the settings and the possibility to turn off any module.
• More than a hundred of new ready-to-use effects and nickvoices.
• AV VCS has now a built-in Voice Comparator module – so you can morph your voice into the voices of famous artists and singers.
• You may now define the AV VCS Settings (Separate Settings for Streams, Record non-morphed voice, Process VCS Player in Morpher,
  Select Microphone on Startup, and some other rules and adjustments).
• Improved graphic equalizer smoothes out the voice output.

Quick Tips to Get Started:

• Make sure your microphone and speakers are working properly. Double-click the AV VCS 4.0 icon. Be sure to turn
  the AV VCS power on and speak into the microphone, adjusting Voice Morpher parameters. You should hear a modified voice
  that you won’t recognize.
• Change the position of the “Pitch-Timbre” pointer in the “Voice Morpher” module or simply select a nickvoice by
  clicking the “Nickvoices” menu button.
• Click the “Advanced” button and the “Advanced Effects” Panel will appear. Choose any module and try any settings.
• On the “Equalizer” panel, click “Presets,” and then try presets one by one to hear how much they smooth out your
  modified voice.
• Click the “Effects” button, select an effect, and listen to your modified voice.
• The quality of the voice output also depends on the Mode an

utube video on how to change a voice on skype 

 
<iframe width=”425″ height=”349″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/-Kooy-3MFUY” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>


http://youtu.be/-Kooy-3MFUY