Here is a reply I posted on answerbank a few days ago that may help
The world is awash with spam and there is little that can be done about it.
The best approach is to have 2 or 3 (or more) DIFFERENT emails for different uses.
1) Have one JUST for family and friends (or have ONE for family and another for friends). Never give it to anyone else, NEVER use it on the web. These should get little or no spam.
2) Have another for the web (signing up to web sites, forums etc). This may start to get spam, but as none of your friends or family know this email address you can quickly delete all the spam.
3) Have another JUST for internet banking (if you do interent banking).
I signed up for googlemail which was free and get very little spam.
I have 5 different email addresses for different things.