I do believe my problem has to do with the Internet privacy act running out of steam.
Recently, in the past couple of months, I've started getting more and more Spam thrown into my "important personal and purchase" email account. My Comcast account. It's gotten to a crazy amount now, and it never happened before.
Today I remembered the act was running at some point, and I decided to go looking in my account settings, and lo' and behold, there's a new section in there.
Communications & Ad Preferences
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That Ad Preferences bit is the problem. I've gone in and opted out (in 2 different sections that required reading fine print), but I've got a sneaky suspicion that everyone might start getting that garbage from their ISPs. So, you might want to go look at some of your settings and if necessary, opt out of them the way I've done today. Especially if you're a Comcast or Cox customer.
I expect Spam in my other "trash" accounts that I have, but I don't expect it in that Comcast account. We'll see if the garbage stops now.