I get about 150 spam emails a week on Gmail and they are all a load of rubbish, but the spam filter works very well. I agree though mad, i hardly ever click on links in emails unless there from friends, or something i have bought (info/shipping etc)

I am signed up with youtube mailer which states that they e mail 2.8 billion people on every email..

I just have a hard time believing that they email that many people... I think that would be evry computer in the world.
there is realy no way to verify what they claim

Well YouTube is a very very popular site around the world, and each member would have had to submit their e-mail address. UK alone has a population of over 60 million people alone, and were only a tiny little island compared to the rest of europe and America. It wouldn't suprise me if youtube had nearly 3 billion members.