It might be a bit of a challenge, but try and recall that childhood classic, “Have you heard, they’ve taken ‘gullible’ out of the English dictionary?”

It’s a line that was usually guaranteed to catch a couple of your friends out, and possibly even earn a few cheap, but satisfying, laughs from your brighter peers.

Well, the opportunists and the wind-up merchants from the school playground have found a new, significantly more abundant source of gullible victims: the Internet.

The World Wide Web has helped host and spread countless pranks, hoaxes and flimflams over the years, reeling in the naïve and overly trusting.

We’ve seen everything from the corpse of a fairy (that was available to purchase online), to Hercules, the 20st dog, which supposedly stood as tall as a horse. Both of which were fake, by the way…

Some of the latest victims, we’re sorry to report, are smartphone users. In particular, we’re talking about those with an iPhone.

Various (IMPRUDENT AND FICTITIOUS!) rumours have been created and shared on the Internet, all claiming that you can fully charge your iPhone in a matter of seconds – simply by placing it in the microwave.

One particular hoax claimed, “A smart phone microwaved for just one minute will fully charge the battery. In 2005, Apple started a smear campaign to discourage customers from using this method to charge phones as it would affect charger sales.

“Scientific studies shows that charging a phone this way is safe and is actually better for the phone’s battery life as electric current found in mains can fluctuate and damage the battery cell.”

If you didn’t catch my subliminal warning in the brackets above, you need to know that microwaving your iPhone, or any other mobile or electronic device will certainly not charge it.

It is in fact extremely hazardous, and will almost certainly result in irreparable damage to both your smartphone and microwave. We highly recommend you do not fall into this costly, irresponsible trap. You can not charge your smartphone in the microwave.

The wiser, more sensible and vast majority of Internet users don’t need to read such a glaringly obvious warning, but sadly it would seem that some that do.

Here’s something to think about whenever a seed of doubt is planted: food works well in a microwave; electronics do not.