Thank you for this prompt reply. I already had spoken with Apple (and I have AppleCare+). In fact I spoke with two agents over the phone and one over chat. The one over chat was confused and it was probably my inability to explain. The second on the phone told me that my me.com account had already been deleted and that spam was not an Apple issue. The third was quite helpful and when I told her that I don't get mail on iCloud.com, she suggested that I turn this off (on my iPhone, we could not figure it out under Tahoe). This made sense - but it did not work.
Let me summarize: the Apple staff member see that my me.com come has been deleted years ago and they told me that they CANNOT help me. Thanks again.