'HIV in Pepsi bottles' confirmed as a hoax by Met Police

Police are telling people to ignore a hoax message warning people not to drink Pepsi because their bottles have been contaminated with HIV after the false claims circulated on social media and other messaging services.

The hoax message to "all citizens of the United Kingdom", which has wrongly been attributed to the Metropolitan Police, tells people not to drink any products from Pepsi for the next few weeks as "a worker from the company has added his blood contained with HIV (AIDS)".

The message then claims the warning was also broadcast on Sky News, which is also untrue.

Met Police confirmed they did not put out the statement and to treat it as a hoax.

A spokesperson also confirmed they have received a "malicious communications allegation in relation to a message being circulated on social media about contamination of a drink product".

A similar hoax also spread in 2011 in India, but the claim was made against another products including other products including Frooti Drinks and Coca Cola, although it was not explained how other company's products would also be affected.

The 2011 hoax also stated that the incident would be reported on India's NDTV news network, which again was false.