News, views and top stories in your inbox. Don't miss our must-read newsletter Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Don't be fooled by a fake advert that claims that users of Apple’s latest operating system, iOS 8, can charge their iPhone by putting it in the microwave.

The “Wave” technology was cooked up by mischief makers on notorious online messageboard 4chan . Someone designed an official-looking Apple ad that stated that “Wave can be used to quickly charge your device’s battery using any standard household microwave”.

“Wave will become automatically activated when you update to iOS 8. You can now Wave-charge your device by placing it within a household microwave for a minute and a half,” it explained.

How did this fake charging system work? With technological gobbledygook: “iOS 8 contains new drivers that interface with your device’s radio-baseband allowing it to synchronise with microwave frequencies and use them to recharge your battery.”

Dozens of 4chan members tried to give the ad credibility by tweeting about how brilliant the new functionality was. The vast majority of people spotted that it was a hoax immediately, but a few people may have fallen for it.

To make things more complicated, a number of Twitter users - and likely 4chan members - are posting pictures of what looks like an exploded microwave or fried iPhone. These are also hoaxes.

A similar prank - also started by 4chan last year - claimed that the previous version of the software, iOS 7, made your iPhone waterproof. It was more successful at fooling people.