since the new anti-spam legislation, my spam has INCREASED by maybe 30-40%! I wonder if they are trying to milk all the suckers they can before the window is closed....

as to setting up filters, as Devilmaster suggests...yeah, this can help..(I use Eudora, which has it own filtering system) [and would not touch Outlook Express with a 10 foot pole..but..]

anyway...to avoid 'most' spam & viruses, I prefer never letting it get into my mailbox. There are several Email checking programs which look at your mail on the server, allow you to examine it, (just reading the headers is usually enough) and DELETE it before allowing your regular email program to bring down only stuff that you know is ok.

Do yourself a favor and take a look at things like

and Scan Mailbox (there are several other good ones also)
These add only a few seconds to your routine and 'may' save you a lot of aggrevation.