Windows 7: phishing emails attack

Hi guys.

In the last week, I have been getting quite a few "phishing" emails.
6 from one crowd purporting to be from an Australian bank, saying "a term deposit has been opened.."
I deleted those, unopened. (then researched and found it to be a common scam)

Today but, I got another one, from a different crowd, saying (to the effect of..) that some administrator from Facebook wanted..(whatever it was ..) and 2 links.
But not cleverly enough I opened one link, and (..of course) Avast jumped in with a Malware warning.

I don't have Facebook. I don't use Facebook.

I am cool with all my Antivirus, and have checked and erased and cleaned my whole computer, but where did they/them, get my email address from?
Only 6 people know my email address.

What do you reckon ?

There is not a great deal you can do to stop spam and "phishing" emails except take the usual precautions to protect your PC and, of course NEVER open any links or attachments in them.

However, you could also look at the spam filter on your email provider to see if it is set to the recommended levels and report any suspicious ones to them.

Thanks. Yes, I see now that I have not set a junk mail / spam.
I will have to "train" it.

..just one last little enigma. I wonder how they/them got my email address.
My guess is, that they/them got into one of my friends email address book, and stole addresses in order to send spam.

There are numerous ways anyone can get or guess your email address,especially if it is a relatively simple one - have you never got a anonymous email before ?

no, it's not simple, and no, I never got one before.

Some sites do sell or give away a database of email addresses. If you have submitted your email address to certain sites which may be suspicious, for subscription, etc,. that's a factor.

Um, no..I don't subscribe to anything.
Only 6 people know my email address.
(..and now, maybe 6,000,000 )

But, how did they get it?
how did they get it, how did they get it, how did they get it, how did they get it, how did they get it, how did they get it, how did they get it, howdid they get it, howdidthey get it, howdidtheyget it, howdidtheygetit, howdidtheygetithowdidtheygetithowdidtheygetithowdidtheygetit

That isn't a big problem, just mark is a spam/scam.

If you are overly concerned about more than 6 people knowing your e-mail address, you can always change it - is it something so special and unique that a slightly different one would make any difference ? Once your spam filter is working as it should, the amount of crap getting to your in box should reduce dramatically.