To not receive them, use spam filters. To stop spammers from using a server to send out spam, report them. here are my thoughts....
Legitimate Spam (a.k.a. junk mail) will always have an opt out method at the bottom of the email. Legally, companies are required to offer an opt-out method and either a toll-free number to call OR a physical address. So, to get them to stop sending you email, simply unsubscribe.
The real PITA (pain in the ...) are illegitamate spammers, like all those viagra, mortgage approved, namibian investment opportunities, secure your paypal account, etc. scams. These emails are often sent from hijacked servers with forged return addresses. So, don't get mad and the guy who is in the from address, his email address was likely spoofed. Instead, report it.
You need to look at the headers of the email. Depending on the mail program you are using, you can view your headers in many different ways. In Outllook Express you right click on the email and select "properties", the header is under the second tab.
Copy and paste that into http://spamid.servebeer.com:8081/spamid/spamemailer.jsp
That service lets you know who is responsible for the server sending out the spam, and even creates the email for you that gets carbon copied to spam@uce.gov. That URL gives you the general abuse address for that server as well as the email address of their technical person. Their technical person doesn't want to receive hate mail, so they generally take care of the offending server really quickly.
Here's an example of a header (I changed the info of innocent parties):
Received: (qmail 21390 invoked from network); 18 Jun 2006 16:57:09 -0000
Received: from 219-84-121-5-adsl-cha.static.so-net.net.tw (HELO 3552268) ([219.84.121.5])
(envelope-sender
)
by mail10.sea5.youremailisp.com(qmail-ldap-1.03) with SMTP
for ; 18 Jun 2006 16:57:08 -0000
Received: from 88.16.596.800 (naughtysender.com) (88.16.596.800) by mta163.mail.mud.yahoo.com with SMTP; Sun, 18 Jun 2006 11:56:58 -0600
thread-index: ufg5h53v+9326cm4m0k0095342p3i==
Thread-Topic: 8vx489h6db4xg0r795q1z8he6lp787t3
From: "Maurice Richter"
To: youremail@yourdomain.net
Subject: Re:Refi
If you use a spam filter, your header will likely look more like this:
Received: (qmail 25387 invoked from network); 18 Jun 2006 16:08:57 -0000
Received: from cpe-72-224-147-154.maine.res.rr.com (HELO PATRICIA-AJXURK.7u4u.com) ([72.224.147.154])
(envelope-sender )
by mail18.sea5.hotmail.com(qmail-ldap-1.03) with SMTP
for ; 18 Jun 2006 16:08:57 -0000
From: "Juana"
To:
Subject: ****SPAM**** Join the Hoodia revolution
Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2006 12:08:50 -0400
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook, Build 11.0.5510
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1106
Thread-Index: vF39pkcUSJnoc6yuACxkLT68je7yiWf9WJtg
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="Windows-1251"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Spam-Prev-Subject: Join the Hoodia revolution
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on mail18.sea5
X-Spam-Level: *****************
X-Spam-Status: Yes, score=17.8 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_99,URIBL_AB_SURBL,
URIBL_JP_SURBL,URIBL_OB_SURBL,URIBL_SBL,URIBL_SC_SURBL,URIBL_WS_SURBL
autolearn=disabled version=3.0.4
X-Spam-Report:
* 5.0 BAYES_99 BODY: Bayesian spam probability is 99 to 100%
* [score: 0.9952]
* 1.0 URIBL_SBL Contains an URL listed in the SBL blocklist
* [URIs: tenvor.net]
* 0.4 URIBL_AB_SURBL Contains an URL listed in the AB SURBL blocklist
* [URIs: tenvor.net]
* 2.5 URIBL_JP_SURBL Contains an URL listed in the JP SURBL blocklist
* [URIs: tenvor.net]
* 1.5 URIBL_WS_SURBL Contains an URL listed in the WS SURBL blocklist
* [URIs: tenvor.net]
* 3.2 URIBL_OB_SURBL Contains an URL listed in the OB SURBL blocklist
* [URIs: tenvor.net]
* 4.3 URIBL_SC_SURBL Contains an URL listed in the SC SURBL blocklist
* [URIs: tenvor.net]