What to do about junk mail
Perhaps it's too late to try Step 1, you're already getting a lot of junk mail. Now you find yourself reading your mail and find another exciting offer to MAKE MONEY FAST! You've got some options on how you handle this, what should you do?
Delete it
Yes, just deleting it and moving on is the easiest thing. There are some other options, so let's look at why they're probably not worth the effort.
Replying with a nasty response
When you get junk mail, you may be tempted to reply to it and tell them to stop bothering you. This is generally not a good idea. The first problem is that almost all junk mail is either sent using a fake address or an addres that can't be replied to. The odds are not good that any reply you send will actually ever be seen by anyone. The second problem is that sometimes the reply will inform the sender that your email address is good and read by a real person, which may cause you to recieve even more spam. Either way, replying is generally a waste of time.
Clicking Links to Remove
This one is a little trickier. Some emails will include information on how to remove yourself from their mailings. Here you have to make a judgement call. If the message came from a reputable company (say a newsletter from CNN or a reputable online store), this option will probably work and following their instructions will prevent you from getting further mail from them. However, with less reputable sites, the link will either not work or may direct you to web pages you don't want to visit. So, trying to remove yourself may or may not work, if you have the time to try it, it may be worth it, but don't expect it to always work.
Going to the site
If the email is advertising a website, many times the link will contain a hidden code that identifies you. By visiting the site, you could be notifying them that not only was your email address valid, but that you also visited the site in the email. This makes you a prime target for more spam, as you've demonstrated that you would follow up on an email message. In general it's not a great idea to visit any sites you recieve in an advertisement.
Trying to figure out where it came from
The tricky thing about spam is that almost all of the information in it can be faked. If you look at the From and the To information, both of those can be completely faked. You may even find sometimes you get spam that says you sent it to yourself. Don't trust any of this information. Trying to track down where the message actually came from is difficult, but we'll cover a shortcut later on in the reporting spam section.