Don:
You are correct. I use earthlink spaminator, and it helps to catch the spam I receive everyday.
This is a major problem and it looks like we cannot control it unless we load software to guard against the unwanted messages.
One of the first things I do when I sign on is to delete the stored spam messages that were caught by the spaminator.
I sometimes want to reply to those from the nigerian republic of fondu and futtter with a very harsh comments, but know if I do it would be like cutting my throat!