adware and spyware is very real. If you find yourself getting a lot of pop ups for no good reason or a lot of spam emails, then you may have spyware and/or adware on your computer.
Spy/Adware is really a big niusance. I've had a computer get so infested with spy/adware that it froze on starting up.
Spybot Search & Destroy is a great free program to get rid of that stuff. In fact, I do weekly checks on my computer to keep it out.
I use Lavasoft adaware and imo its the best one out there for free. Its stoped all the pop-ups ive been getting and also my internet now runs even faster