Wave Hoax Tricks Gullible iPhone Users Into Microwaving Their Phones

[elvor0]

Mostly the smarter-than-thou attitude and the unnecessary spite on display is what grosses me out about some of the responses. I don't generally think of adults as being spiteful, but I guess that's because offline most people aren't.

Lets just think of it this way. Regardless of whether or not you know that putting metal and electronics in a microwave is a bad thing,(This IS very common knowledge regardless of how you want to spin it. Almost as widely known as fire is fucking hot, it is not unreasonable to expect people to know this, or arrogant or anything else, the expression "common sense" is being used for a reason) what does a microwave do when you put things in it? It COOKS the thing. Why on earth would you expect a different outcome after the hundreds of times you've used your microwave to cook things?

 

[RA92]

Just wait until I introduce these people to my wonderful friend Naziim, a member of the long-standing Nigerian Royal line. I hear he needs you to send him some money to help him out.

But don't worry; he's good for it, I swear.

If you see the first Tweet, it appears not even Nigeria's finest have escaped this electromagnetic firestorm.

 

[Saika Renegade]

I want to feel some sympathy, but the best I can muster up is vaguely contemptuous pity. Anyone who does something 'just because they heard it worked on the internet' without spending even a fractional second of time spent looking up the concept deserves the consequences for their lack of research. Cor, I lived in a village where we didn't even know microwaves existed until I was about six years old, and I still knew better than to stick a metal object into one when I saw it because I'd generally learned that an appliance that causes heat and any item with metal in it would probably be a bad combination if you put the two near each other.

Maybe this is proof that there really are people simply shouldn't have access to any communications technology more complex than a crayon.

 

[the December King]

However, Campbells has microwaveable soups with metal rings in the packaging to speed up the heating process, so it's not totally unheard of. I'm just saying that it's not so far fetched a concept as all that. Recharging the battery sounds like a real leap, on the other hand...

1) you should not be heating soup with packaging.

2) metal rings in liquids in microwave would make said liquids inedible.

I don't want to get too into it, but the microwaveable soups that come in cups are supposed to go in the microwave, as is... so yeah, pretty sure this is a thing: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-217023.html

I'm not saying it's an excuse for tossing any metal into the microwave, just that it isn't as verboten as some seem to think.

 

[lee1287]

If you fell for it, you shouldn't be interacting with other people anyway, so it's kind of good they did it. Ha.

 

[SmugFrog]

Whenever I get a prescription I look it up and check out what it does and all the side effects.

I went to the base clinic one day while really sick, they gave me some pills for everything to help me get "better". While I was in the shower, my wife brought me the pills (3 different prescriptions) and I took them. When I got out of the shower, she asks, "Why do they have you taking heart medication?" Yeah - they put someone else's bottle in the bag - if she'd only looked at the name on the bottle. I'm always very cautious about medication too.

Hell I had a friend post a Pro Gun story about a girl defending her home with a shot gun. Which would be great, but it was totally bunk. Hey but these people who were dumb enough to do this may think twice next time before they just believe something.

I saw that story a while back too and thought it sounded too good to be true, so I checked it on snopes. I'm thinking there should be a mandatory moment in everyone's life, around age 10-13 or so, where they're given instructions over the internet similar to this WAVE thing, and see what they do. If they don't follow it, or research it, they have good sense; if not, it's a learning experience for them and hopefully they'll learn from it and do research next time.

 

[mindfaQ]

In Germany we have a term for that: dümmster anzunehmender User (stupidest user imaginable). They successfully exploited those people ^^. I don't even feel sorry, since they used iPhones.

 

[PH3NOmenon]

Education can be quite expensive, as it turns out.

 

[juyunseen]

Dammit people there was a youtube series about this

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/iU76rDdn2WA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>

 

[immortalfrieza]

I can't decide if this is a chilling testament to how off-the-rails our educational system is, or if its more disturbing that something as obvious as not microwaving your electronic devices is evidence of the idiocracy effect in action, and it's therefore okay to be both amused and disturbed by the fact that we have people who actually fall for this stuff.

This reminds me of those times in school when, to prepare people for work, they'd have some lessons having us read some stories or watch videos of employees doing ridiculously obviously stupid stuff, like being rude to customers, slacking off, constantly being late, not wearing eye/head/hands/foot/mouth protection while working on dangerous equipment, etc. all being things that everybody on the planet should already know. My thoughts were always something along the lines of "I don't know what's worse, that they all think we're stupid enough that we even have to be told not to do this kind of obviously idiotic crap or that the fact that lessons like this exist means that there's people out there right now that actually are."

I get a similar reaction from reading articles like this. I don't think our education system is off the rails, I just think that no matter how good our education might be or could be there will always be plenty of really really stupid people that do really really stupid crap like this regardless.

If I feel anything for these people, it's disgust and maybe pity at the most, I don't even laugh at stuff like this anymore.

 

[Saviordd1]

People are dipshits, there is no other way to put this.

I mean, do people stop and think for TEN SECONDS that maybe putting anything that's NOT food in a microwave may be BAD?

Just...

Just....

I can't

 

[Cid Silverwing]

http://www.techradar.com/us/news/gaming/consoles/xbox-one-owners-warned-over-console-bricking-backwards-compatibility-scam-1205744 This?

No, although that's just as terrible. I can't quite remember what it was, but it had something to do with waterproofing one's cell phone, or something like that, and then everyone who tried only crushed their phones in the wash or shorted it out from the water.

 

[DoomyMcDoom]

So what I'm learning from this thread and its replies is that it's perfectly ok for other people to suffer if said people are "inferior"

While some people think that way, I just find it funny to watch people learn the hard way on topics that should really be common sense. And, just the amount of carelessness involved, if you had a phone worth $600+ would you not at least try to be careful with it?
Putting it in a microwave would be the LAST thing most people would do, as microwaves COOK things, and I don't personally know anyone who would want to cook something that valuable, even if they were told that they could get a faster charge.

Not saying it's not a cruel prank, but really, if you look at nature, well, natural selection, this is just an example of it, hopefully these people learn and adapt rather than not, because if not, they're going to have a bad time.

 

[XMark]

While I'm laughing at this prank, I'm also somewhat concerned that the people dumb enough to fall for it are probably also dumb enough not to avoid the toxic fumes from a battery explosion.

 

[Czann]

So hard to feel sorry for any of these idiots.

Actually it's impossible.

 

[tzimize]

Here is the thread from 4chan. Same people that told people iOS 7 was water proof. http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/832/854/abb.png

Thank you! I was having a pretty rotten day...but how can I not laugh at this? ^________________^

 

[IamLEAM1983]

I don't think our education system is off the rails, I just think that no matter how good our education might be or could be there will always be plenty of really really stupid people that do really really stupid crap like this regardless.

This. I've seen several cases of people who honestly knew how to handle a debate use researched and peer-reviewed sources to support incredibly dumb stuff, like the Flat Earth Society, homosexuality being somehow immoral or one of the many Lizardmen conspiracies spawned by David Icke and his ilk.

The educational system really only gives you a set of really powerful tools. You can use them to become the next Ken Follett or Stephen King, you can become the next Neil DeGrasse Tyson - or you can fall back in with the Tinfoil Brigade and do the worst thing possible, which is giving airs of legitimacy to crackpot theories.

 

[Mezahmay]

I don't even care that these people just wasted hundreds of dollars to brick their phones and damage their microwaves, this is some delicious schadenfreude.

 

[Someone Depressing]

Brother did this. Brother said it'd work.

Started a small house fire.

Spoiler: My face when.

God, I'm a terrible person.

Seriously, I can't tell whether I'm supposed to be ashamed for out piss-poor excuse for a species or laughing my ass off at our piss-poor excuse for a species.

A little bit of both, I suppose.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

Maybe Apple are behind this hoax and they did it to get their users to buy a new iPhone quicker.

lol. This hoax was passed around years ago with the conspiracy that "Steve Jobs knows that if people realize they can charge their phones in the microwave, they won't have to buy any charging cables from Apple. Therefore he made a smear campaign stating that microwaving your phone would destroy it in order to make more money". A friend of my sister almost fell for it