Instead of worrying about what to do with the spam you already get, it's a good idea to try to avoid being targeted in the first place. There are some simple steps you can take to minimize your exposure.

1. Address Use

   Spammers have a much harder time finding you if they don't know you exist. Although they often search new domain registration records looking for targets, or just send out huge amounts of e-mail to random recipients, they mainly prefer to work from known positive address lists. That way, they can ensure a higher return on their work. Keeping your e-mail address secret isn't as easy as it sounds though -- almost everywhere you go on the Internet companies ask for your registration details. You've probably noticed that as soon as you sign up for one newsletter or offer, others quickly follow.

   Instead of supplying your real e-mail address, sign up for a free account with a provider such as Hotmail or Yahoo!. Use your throwaway e-mail address when providing contact details, and when it becomes overloaded with spam, simply close it and create a new one.
   Keep your real address private, and only give it out to people you know.

2. Don't Click Links

   If you do receive spam, make sure you don't click any Web links in it. This is especially true for the "If you do not wish to receive these e-mails, please click here" type of links. Despite the promise of removal, you're guaranteed to be marked as a known positive address if you respond to the e-mail. Resist the temptation!

3. Don't Open the E-Mail!

   If you receive an e-mail you know is spam, delete it immediately. Simply opening the e-mail is enough to activate a Web bug and get your address confirmed. If you're unsure whether an e-mail is spam or not, most e-mail clients allow you to save the message as plain text without opening it.

4. Web Site Contact Details

   If you have your own domain and publish your own Web site, the odds are that you've put a Contact Us link on one of the pages. The normal format of this link is a mailto directive, such as mailto:me@mydomain.com .
   Spammers use Web spiders to crawl the Web and find e-mail addresses embedded in Web pages, so they can easily pick up your address from your Web site. Instead of providing a mailto link, use a script written in PHP or ASP (Active Server Pages) to automatically deliver the e-mail to you.

5. Turn Off Read Receipts

   Spammers might find you by accident, but if you stay off their known positive lists, you're likely to be ignored. By turning off read receipts in your e-mail client, you're helping to prevent the spammers from knowing their e-mails got through.

6. Don't Use the Outlook Preview Pane

   The Outlook Preview Pane is possibly one of the biggest e-mail related security risks. To delete an e-mail, you need to select it, and simply by selecting an e-mail, Outlook accurately renders its contents into the Preview Pane; Web bugs, malware, and all.
   In other words, if you have a malicious e-mail in your Inbox and the Preview Pane is enabled, it's very, very likely that you're infected. Turn it off!

7. Install Security Patches

   Make sure you keep up to date with security patches for your e-mail client, and your operating system. Your computer is only as secure as its weakest component. When a security patch is released, malicious programmers are usually quick to take advantage of all the people who haven't installed it yet.
   Spammers use security issues just like spyware programmers.

8. Only Read Plain Text E-mails

   HTML e-mail is a very big security issue.. Unfortunately it's also very user friendly, and so you may not want to make this sacrifice. You need to consider your options carefully, however, because the opportunities for a malicious e-mail to successfully attack your computer are vastly reduced if e-mails are always viewed as plain text. There are a number of simple add-ins that will perform this conversion for you, such as E-Mail Sentinel Pro.