Are there programs I can buy to help eliminate SPAM messages.

One program that works fine on my Pentium machine with WINXp is called GhostSurf. Go to tenebril.com and readup on it. Reasonab;e 1 year or two tear renewal fee also. My spam mail has just about disappeared. BTW if you get email where the subject line starts with [SPAM]. I found by accident how this happens (going to aWeber site - they are very much involved in emails as they provide autoresponder services). Many IPS mail handlers have a spam test program installed It reads  emails before sending them to your inbox and assigns a rating. Anything exceeding their trigger level will have the [SPAM] attached yo the subject line.

   I looked at GhostSurf's webpage and according to their description, it does not do anything with SPAM.  I don't think that $39.95 for one year and $54.90 for two years is reasonable.

I've been using a freeware program called Cactus Spam    http://codeode.com/

It doesn't catch everything but it does a pretty good job  

Try the free version of MailWasher. If it works for you upgrade to Pro.
It is the best I've found.

If you use the Opera browser, it offers Opera Web Mail which provides a junk mail filter option to catch spam. Both are available free. I have never used the function  and so cannot say how effective it is. However, the browser is far faster than IE, much easier to use and takes up far less space on your hard drive.

Disclaimer: I have no connection with Opera.

I've got a great free one for you.  It's called Choice Mail.  It works on a totally different principle than most spam detectors.  Rather than looking at the content of the arriving message to determine if it's SPAM or not,  it assumes that it IS spam.  You then either allow or deny the sender.  It takes a couple of days of diligence to collect the senders that you want to recieve from.  Many of the spammers use the same domain.  This program allows you to deny an entire domain.  The publisher is Digital Portal.  Just do a Google for Choice Mail and you'll find it.  IT'S FREE, IT WORKS, AND I LOVE IT!

PS The free version has some conveniene features limited.  It still works great.  Send me an e-mail and I'll tell you how to be able to use some of them.

Two answers are perfectly accurate : one is Ray's ; aside from his remark, which puts an end to the question , I tried it once for my despair . It worked about one day and then problems with ghostsurfing arise permanently on my browser which became useless ; beware of such things .
Second is rarrows' answer :mail washer pro is excellent . No problem, no bugs , no spam .  

Quoted from rarrows Try the free version of MailWasher. If it works for you upgrade to Pro. It is the best I've found.

I've been using MailWasher Pro - which remembers and bounces your designated unwanted emails - for a while and it's as good as it gets.

Trouble is that these internet parasites won't take 'no' as an answer. The real answer is to hit persistent spammers in the pocket by levying a swingeing tax on their bulk emailings. But in the meantime whoever comes up with a positive 'discouragement' to spammers - like making their machines freak out - will make a small fortune.