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I absolutely loathe getting calls from private, unknown, or 1-800's numbers. Nothing ever good comes from these calls—bill collectors, scammers probing for my background, and exes. Typically I don't even answer my cell when these numbers come up, but for some strange reason, something felt particularly "wrong" when I received a 1-800 call a few weeks ago. My intuition was right.

"Hi yes," said the woman on the other end, "I'm calling from Chase Bank and we've noticed some unusual purchasing activity on your account." At first I thought it was a scam, some criminal trying to swindle me for my account number. "Did you spend $2,000 at Ralph Lauren and Bebe's clothing and apparel on May 1?" she continued. Of course I didn't spend nearly an entire pay check on two frou-frou luxury clothing stores that I don't even dare walking into because I know I can't afford anything in there. I took a moment to excuse myself as I logged in my bank account online. And that's when my heart sunk. Stolen from my account? A whopping $2,000. I was a victim of identity theft.

While Chase assured me that if I filled out the right paperwork I'd get "most" of my money put back into my account (and I did), in retrospect, there was so much I could of done to try and prevent such a "inconvenience" from happening –and I do mean inconvenience. I had bills to pay and a trip I was taking in just a few short weeks. It couldn't have occurred at a worse time. That said, below are some ways you can learn from my mistakes and help protect yourself from credit card identity theft.

 Shred all of your Bank Statements 

The easiest thing you can do is invest in a shredder and properly dispose of all of your paper bank statements and credit card/debit card receipts that you don’t need anymore. You'd be surprised to learn how much a "professional" can do with just your name and the last four digits of your credit card number. Some scammers intentionally dig through trash in order to retrieve this information, so don't make their jobs any easier by throwing your sensitive documents in the dumpster whole—especially public trash cans like those found in parks.

Only use "Secured" Sites when Making Purchases

Ensuring that the website you're browsing is "secured" when making online purchases is essential. Otherwise, your credit card information, including your EFC and your billing address could potentially be a free-for-all. There are several different ways that you can make sure the page you are viewing is secured. The first is to look at the address. A secured website will read https:// ; an unsecured site will read http:// – notice how the secured website has an "s"? Pay close attention to these details. Another indication that the website is secured is that there will be a visible locked padlock on the address bar as well, before the https://. Click on the pad lock to make sure its certificate of authenticity hasn't expired. Some scammers are smart enough to forge fake padlocks on their malicious sites.

Change Pins and Passwords Frequently

It might be a tad annoying having to remember new passwords to your accounts, online log-ins, and debit card every six months or so, but doing this can really help potential criminals from hacking into your information. Don't ever make an "obvious" pin or password either, such as the last four digits of your social security number, phone number or your name.

Set up Alerts 

Last but not least you want to set up alerts whenever money is taken out of your account to be sent to your phone. My bank was gracious enough to personally call me when my unfortunate circumstance happened (after all, my bank knew I never spent that much money at one time) but don't depend on your bank to give you a heads up. Always monitor your own account. This will help you catch unusual activity much more quickly which means the chances of you getting reimbursed are higher. This will also help you catch any discrepancies—perhaps a restaurant or hotel over charged you for something.

Criminals and hackers are smart. The smartest of the bunch may just very well find a way to your information despite your efforts. However, following the tips above can leave some sense of security that you're not handing over your information on a silver platter.

With knowledge of the best background check companies and tactics, Jane Smith provides vital information and tips throughout her blogs. Email her your thoughts or concerns at janesmith161 at gmail dot com.

If you've never come across the words 'spread betting' in a financial sense, you would probably be forgiven for thinking that it has something to do with bookies and sporting events.

So what exactly does it entail?
In essence spread betting is a fairly simple concept. It merely entails placing a bet on which way you think a particular market is going to go. If you think the market is going to rise and you have bet on it going up (going long), then when it does you make a profit. If on the other hand you predict that the market is going to fall and you bet on that exact scenario (going short) and it does, then again,you make a profit. When you close your bet you can claim your profit.

Let's put this into a proper scenario...

Okay let's say that we bet on the NASDAQ and based on some recent news we think that it may go up, so we place a 'long' bid. If the index does exactly what we want it to do and rises, then we are in profit. How much profit depends on the spread. For example, say that the index started off life at 100 and it rises to 200. If we close the bet at this point then the spread would be 100. Therefore if we placed a £1.00 bet then we would have made a healthy profit of £100.

Risks
Obviously it isn't all cut and dried and there are definite risks involved in spread betting. For example if you got it horribly wrong and instead of the stocks going up by 100 points, they went down by the same margin, then you would then be 'in the hole' for £100. This can be prevented by placing a stop order should the stocks start to fall beyond a certain point, however it doesn't eliminate the risk altogether. The potential is there to incur heavy losses if you are not careful.

So how easy is a spread betting account to set up?
In essence, setting up a spread betting account online is a fairly simple process. Many of the trading platforms offer spread betting online and will also have demo platforms for you to practice. This is where many people look to dip their toes in the water and it's worthwhile checking out the brokers product spec before opening up a pro spread betting account. Download a practise demo version - it's an ideal starting place if you are looking to learn how to make money out of the stock markets.

Like anything it pays to do your research first before you jump in with both feet as success certainly isn't guaranteed. If you are happy to go ahead and have the funds to do so then spread betting is a great way to earn some extra cash, provided that you understand what you're doing.

If you were hiking in the mountains and stopped in a small river for a drink only to look up and see a bear charging at you, what would you do? Our instinctual reaction in a life-threatening situation, such as being charged by a bear, is to run. But wilderness experts will tell you that instead of running from a bear, you should curl into a small ball.

The moral of the story is that you can’t outrun a bear. And the same is true of metaphoric bears — a bear market, for example.

Anyone who has invested in the past decade, and especially in the past five years, has seen what finance people call a "bear market". What is a bear market? In the most basic terms, it is exactly what it sounds like: a confluence of unfortunate factors that make the stock market a terrible, scary place to be, especially for inexperienced investors.

Our instinctual response to a bear markets is the same as our reaction to a live bear — we want to run. We want to scramble and get out as soon as possible to protect our investments. The thing about a bear market, though, is that it is a natural period of decline. Inevitably, after a period of large gains, the market will sink. Here are three ways to handle a bear market and come out with all your limbs intact:

1. Don’t run. Just as with real bears, trying to run away from a bear market by selling out and transferring your assets into a cash market will generally yield worse results than just staying put. In fact, by trying to run, you only lock in your losses. Volatility in built into the market system, so you can’t let a bad spell shake your faith. If the market is down, the damage is already done to your investments, so don’t make it worse by jumping ship. Instead, plan for the troughs by taking a long-term approach. If you do this, you’ll be in an optimal position to ride the wave back to a prospering market when it recovers.

2. Take stock. One way to take a long-term approach is to review your asset allocation when the market is down and readjusting the mix based on your risk tolerance. Wise investors will tell you that you should be re-balancing your portfolio at least once a year anyway, regardless of how the market is doing.

3. Be consistent. It’s very important to stay the course, even when the market is down. Typically this means that you should continue to add to your portfolio as you would when the market is up. This strategy is called dollar-cost-averaging — if you have a set amount of money you invest each month, buying more when prices are low and less when prices are high, the average price per share you’ll pay will be less expensive than the standard average share price.

Timing the market is as difficult and futile as running from a bear. So curl up, and wait for the bear to drop you, and you’ll be likely to outperform others who try to run.

By-line:
Alvina Lopez is a freelance writer and blog junkie, who blogs about accredited online colleges. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: alvina.lopez at gmail dot com.