I shamelessly repost this from Seth Godin's blog, just because it's really of interest to everyone, certainly is worth repeating if you have friends like mine, who keep sending you chain mail type emails. It doesn't seem to matter how often I as them to stop - they can't seem to stop... and his post was perfect as is:
Next time you get an email (copied to all your friends plus people you don't know) warning you about some horrible computer virus, some sick kid collecting greeting cards or the National Do Not Call List, don't just blindly follow instructions and then forward to everyone you know.
Instead, go to Google and type in the word "snopes" followed by the gist of the cause or the event or emergency. Snopes will then tell you whether it's a hoax or not. Save you and your list a whole lot of time.
The thing is some of those pesky emails are mildly entertaining but some are just nasty.