OK, first things first.
You say you don't know where these spam mails come from as you've never replied to dodgy emails. But, have you ever posted your email address in a forum, or published your email address on any website at all? Have you even used your email address when
registering with a forum or website? You'd be surprised at how many of these sites are more than happy to pass on your email address to spammers.
As for a solution?
Well, the simplest solution (although not the most popular) is to simply create a new email address, and then not use it to sign up for 'stuff'. Then get a separate Hotmail or Yahoo! (or any other free mail account provider) account for signing up for 'stuff', and leave your real email address for friends, family and people you are happy to give your email address to.
If you simply cannot consign your current email address to the 'e-scaffy-cart', then a free solution is going to be difficult to find (although I did use a rather nifty freeware Bayesian Filter for a while, called K9, by a company called KeirSoft. It took a fair bit of setting-up but once it had trained itself, it was simply brilliant).
The other option is to pay for an anti-spam solution, usually provided by your email provider. This is probably the best option, although it involves that dreaded word; pay.
Oh, hang on, just remembered - one of the most simple and straight-forward solutions is to stop using Outlook Express altogether, and start using Mozilla Thunderbird. It has a built in Bayesian Filter where you can flag each spam mail you receive and over time (a couple of weeks) it learns which mails are bad and which are good, and blocks the bad ones.
And it's free.
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