Why people are fascinated with sending Urban Legends to everyone else

Okay, I got another e-mail from a friend about a "cautionary tale." It was about staying away from men who try to give you your money back in a gas station, then kidnap you and kill you. I went to my favorite website to check these things out, http://www.snopes.com It turned out to be false. I know people mean well to send these e-mails out, I've been caught with sending one or two myself thinking it was true.

Why do we send urban legends out? Why do we seem to believe everything we read in an e-mail, especially since there are websites dedicated to checking these stories out. Snopes always have at least 3 to 5 references from books and other media.

I really thought the internet would be a great way to communicate ideas when I had my first e-mail account in '94. Most of the stuff I get are jokes (those are nice), chain letters (those are not nice) and cautionary tales such as:
The woman who died because a lobster who impregnated her,
The man who died because he was trying to stuff all his clothes in a washing machine, got stuck, then smacked into a shelf and bled to death,
The mutant cat,
The man taking a picture on top of the World Trade Center as one of the planes were about to careen into the North tower...
and on and on and on...

I'm not saying I don't like getting e-mails but I'm sick of getting e-mails telling me I'll die if I don't send this e-mail out in 1 hour.

My point is this: Don't believe everything you read on the internet. Check it out at Snopes or other urban legends sites like http://www.urbanlegends.about.com

It's off my chest now.