This happened on our college list a couple of years ago and I sent the following message. It hasn't happened since:

>>>> This is not just for [offending faculty member]. Please don't forward messages like this to [our internal list]. It's a kind of internet virus, spam and probably illegal.

Anything that has been forwarded this many times, anything that says "this is for real", anything that claims you'll make money from it, is probably fraudulent. The usual aim of messages like this is to get you to forward it and clog up other people's e-mail.

There is no boy dying of cancer in England/Kentucky/Seattle/Whereever/ - Craig Shergold recovered 10 years ago, but he's still getting e-mail. Microsoft/Disney/AOL/Any company/ will not pay you to forward e-mail - it cannot be tracked. Let [computer support] send virus warnings.

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html

from http://www.newthought.net/e-mailhoaxes.htm

1. Big companies don't do business via chain letters. Bill Gates is not giving you $1000, and Disney is not giving you a free vacation. There is no baby food company issuing class-action checks. You can relax; there is no need to pass it on "just in case it's true." Furthermore, just because someone said in the message, four generations back, that "we checked it out and it's legit," does not actually make it true.

2. There is no kidney theft ring in New Orleans. No one is waking up in a bathtub full of ice, even if a friend of a friend swears it happened to their cousin. If you are bent on believing the kidney-theft ring stories, please see: http://urbanlegends.tqn.com/library/weekly/aa062997.htm . And I quote: "The National Kidney Foundation has repeatedly issued requests for actual victims of organ thieves to come forward and tell their stories. None have." That's "none" as in "zero." Not even your friend's cousin.

3. Neiman Marcus doesn't really sell a $200 cookie recipe. And even if they do, we all have it. And even if you don't, you can get a copy at: http://www.bl.net/forwards/cookie.html. Then, if you make the recipe, decide the cookies are that awesome, feel free to pass the recipe on.

4. We all know all 500 ways to drive your roommates crazy, irritate co-workers and creep out people on an elevator. We also know exactly how many engineers, college students, Usenet posters and people from each and every world ethnicity it takes to change a light bulb.

5. Even if the latest NASA rocket disaster(s) DID contain plutonium that went to particulate over the eastern seaboard, do you REALLY think this information would reach the public via an AOL chain-letter?

6. There is no "Good Times" virus. In fact, you should never, ever, ever forward any email containing any virus warning unless you first confirm it at an actual site of an actual company that actually deals with virii. (See above.)