There are many hoax chain emails going around at the moment.  I personally receive about 5 a day.

If you receive an email that seems too good to be true, it probably is.  The thing to remember is if  you are in doubt, don’t send it out.  You can always visit one of the  anti-hoax sites listed below to check it out  first.

Although these hoaxes may appear harmless they can clog up valuable bandwidth, and you run the risk of spammers harvesting e-mail addresses from hoaxes and chain letters.  After a few generations, many of these letters contain hundreds of good addresses, which is just what the spammers want. 

I have often wondered if these people start these chain letters to gather e-mail addresses that they could then sell on.

The most recent and prevalent hoaxes going around at the moment are:

Marks and Spencer/Persimmon Homes free vouchers

Bill Gates

Ericsson phone giveaway

Expensive phone call

Leukaemia chain letter

MSN closing down

Lipstick

Car Jacking (a warning to females)

A virtual card for you

The websites you can visit to check if an email is a hoax are:

Sophos 
Symantec.com
Hoaxbusters
BreakTheChain.org
Urban Legends and Folklore