As the presidential race heats up, you might find your e-mail inbox clogged with messages detailing allegations about the candidates.

But believe very little of what you read in the anonymous chain e-mails. Even though much of what they say is flat out wrong, polls show a sizeable number of voters still believe them.

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The Web site Snopes.com tracks urban legends on the Internet. Right now, Sen. Barack Obama is No. 3 on its Top 25 list.

Among the false stories about Obama being spread via e-mails is that his church excludes non-blacks, which is not true.

Another says the Ku Klux Klan endorsed Obama, which is not true. And Obama is a "radical Muslim" who was sworn into office on the Quran. Actually, Obama is a Christian but the rumor is so widespread that a poll found 10 percent of voters believe Obama is Muslim.

Then there's a picture of Obama apparently holding a phone upside down, which was a fake.

As for Sen. Hillary Clinton, one e-mail uses a collection of her quotes to suggest she's a closet Marxist. The e-mail does use actual quotes, but they are all misleading or taken out of context.

Other false Clinton e-mails have been in circulation for years, like one alleging she helped free Black Panthers accused of torture and murder. Another says she refused to meet with Gold Star mothers, who are women who lost a child in battle.

The most recent e-mail spreading across the country tries to show Obama has had much greater success than Clinton at getting legislation passed by the Senate. It certainly looks legitimate, even citing bill numbers, but the e-mail is full of inaccuracies.

It said Obama has written 890 bills, but it does not say most of those bills were filed while he was a state senator in Illinois.

The Web site FactCheck.org compared Obama and Clinton's actual record in the Senate and found Clinton has sponsored 51 bills per year compared to 43 per year for Obama. She's also gotten more of her bills passed, with 4.6 compared to Obama's 2.3.

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