Unread email never touches my machines. I read email via the web. Anything I want to save is then invited on to my machine. Ad servers used by sites like CNN and The Weather Channel are blocked in my HOSTS. Anything that requires a 3rd party extension to run inside Chrome requires my explicit permission to start. And those are things even a total n00b can do.
Oh, and here's the number one way I tell people to avoid spam and malware. I **NEVER** **EVER** install browser toolbars. In fact, when someone calls me to have me fix their machines after they've been infected with something, I automatically charge an addition $20 for every browser toolbar I find. If I've cleaned their machines before and warned them about toolbars, the additional charge goes up to $40 per toolbar.
And if I've caught a virus or malware somewhere, then it never did anything nor did it ever "phone home", cause me problems, encrypt my files, delete my files, screw up my display, increase my bandwidth, etc and so on. And I have yet to see an actual virus or malwar that had the intended purpose to do absolutely nothing.