In Outlook, there is a way to turn off the preview pane. I highly recommend doing so - just previewing a message can activate some viruses.
A company I used to work for used Outlook for email, and we got hit with viruses ALL THE TIME... they crashed the mail servers a couple of times.
And I hear you on the spam... Somehow I got on a mailing list in Asia somewhere. I can't read the text, but the pictures make it quite clear what they're advertising (usually cars or porn). And if there's an opt-out link at all, it goes to an invalid email address.
I have filters set up to send this cr@p straight to the trash, where it belongs.