Paypal Accidentally Credits A Man US$92 Quadrillion
Reynolds opened his June email statement from PaPal to find his account had been credited with $92 quadrillion, making him by far the world richest man 2013.
Chris Reynolds, a 56-year-old PR professional from Pennsylvania, found his balance for the online payment service had soared to a barely imaginable $92,233,720,368,547,800 (£60,630,193,209,553,728).
That would make Reynolds – who uses PaPal to receive payments for selling vehicle parts on Ebay – over a million times richer than the world’s richest man, Carlos Slim.
The fortune of Mr Slim, a Mexican telecommunications magnate, would pale in comparison at a mere $73 billion.
As would the world’s annual gross domestic product, at $71.83 trillion – less than one 1000th of Mr Reynold’s online wealth. But his time bearing the mantle of the world’s only quadrilionaire was soon to be restricted.
Unfortunately for Reynolds, when he Sign-in to his account online, it was empty, his balance reading the correct amount of $0.
To add insult to damage, he then received a notice from PaPal asking him to confirm his credit card info or the account would be unusable.
“It’s a interested thing, I don’t know, maybe someone was having some fun,” he said according to CNN.
Had the windfall been genuine, Mr Reynolds said he “probably would have paid down the national debt” and then bought the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team.
The biggest sum Reynolds has ever before received on PaPal was “a small over $1,000” – £656 – selling a set of vintage BMW tyres.
PaPal recognized its mistake and said that it would make a donation of an unspecified sum to the charitable organization of Mr Reynold’s choosing.
“This is obviously an error and we all appreciate that Mr Reynolds recognized this was the case,” the service said in a report. It did not disclose how the mistake had occurred, saying it was against company policy to reveal information on customers’ accounts.
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