PayPal credits man $92 quadrillion in error

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Online payments broker PayPal has admitted it erroneously credited a man with $92 quadrillion (£60 quadrillion).
Chris Reynolds, 56, of Pennsylvania, found the amount when he opened his monthly statement.
But the error was quickly recognised and his account had returned to zero by the time he had logged in.
"This was obviously an error and we appreciate that Mr Reynolds understands this was the case," PayPal said in a statement to the BBC.
The online money-transfer firm said it would offer to make a donation to a charity of Mr Reynolds' choice.
The $92,233,720,368,547,800 statement had been "quite a big surprise", Mr Reynolds told the Philadelphia Daily News, which first reported the story.

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Oops Paypal, imagine checking your balance to see that.. must of been quite a big surprise. Thoughts?

Id happily take this 92 quadrillion spare :8

Haha xD

I'd have asked them for like, £50 for my inconvenience ;)

Silly paypal. Atleast he didn't do a runner like the other people did

Haha I saw this earlier. What a mistake to make :P

Good on him for being so good about it. It's a mistake but nothing damaging. I wonder how much they will give to charity?

A big surprise... for sure. Great story :O

he should have bought a car

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Originally Posted by :Cerys

Haha xD

I'd have asked them for like, £50 for my inconvenience ;)

Silly paypal. Atleast he didn't do a runner like the other people did

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He couldn't - the money simply doesn't exist to give.

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Originally Posted by GommeInc

Good on him for being so good about it. It's a mistake but nothing damaging. I wonder how much they will give to charity?

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Why would they? :L

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PayPal never had this money in the first place guys. A quick bit of maths shows that this would be the same value as 1179487 Bill Gates' :L

How does £60 quaddrillion even exist lol. I'd ask for money as compensation for the troubles I've been caused.

id take it nd go into hiding

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Originally Posted by Daltron

id take it nd go into hiding

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You couldn't take the money as it never really existed lol

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

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Originally Posted by GommeInc

Good on him for being so good about it. It's a mistake but nothing damaging. I wonder how much they will give to charity?

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Thats what I was thinking, restores some faith in the social web. Its nice of PayPal to give something to charity from the mistake most companies would just remove the problem without battering an eyelid

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Originally Posted by Marketing

He couldn't - the money simply doesn't exist to give.

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Yeah, but you could still take some of it. xD

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Originally Posted by Maatt

How does £60 quaddrillion even exist lol. I'd ask for money as compensation for the troubles I've been caused.

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its just numbers thats all it is like for example when you go and get a mortgage from the bank say u want £200,000 all they do is type it into a computer and 200k is created, you then pay it back with interest meaning the bank makes money. If that makes sense??? If that's even right :S lol

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Originally Posted by Marketing

Why would they? :L

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PayPal never had this money in the first place guys. A quick bit of maths shows that this would be the same value as 1179487 Bill Gates' :L

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There are some interesting stories of money literally being strung from thin air from companies that do not own the money and have either made a mistake depositing it or the bank has made an error. It may not exist on the side of PayPal, but the bank crediting it to the other side makes it become real and spendable - I think it involves credit but I know little about accountancy and banking :P It would just mean PayPal would be very, very poor and the gentleman spending money that half exists and half doesn't very, very rich, spending unaccountable money :P

PayPal won't even have $92 quadrillion will they lol, just shows money in a bank is just a number ;)

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Originally Posted by GommeInc

There are some interesting stories of money literally being strung from thin air from companies that do not own the money and have either made a mistake depositing it or the bank has made an error. It may not exist on the side of PayPal, but the bank crediting it to the other side makes it become real and spendable - I think it involves credit but I know little about accountancy and banking :P It would just mean PayPal would be very, very poor and the gentleman spending money that half exists and half doesn't very, very rich, spending unaccountable money :P

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Indeed about the money being sprung from thin air - obviously $92 quadrillion is simply on a different scale though (these sort of things happen pretty regularly, just not 6000x the USA's GDP normally :L I guess in terms of unaccountable money, that would essentially be how a lot of fraud works (get the persons details, buy a watch - money was never really there etc)

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Originally Posted by :Cerys

Yeah, but you could still take some of it. xD

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Simply wouldn't work, I'm afraid. I guess technically if PayPal had the money to give he could have then taken some out and bought something STRAIGHT away, otherwise the they would have just gotten it back (and they probably would get it off him if eh did buy something.

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Originally Posted by e5

PayPal won't even have $92 quadrillion will they lol, just shows money in a bank is just a number ;)

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This is correct - as I say, $92 quadrillion would be 1,179,000 Bill Gates', or about 6000x the United States of America's GDP.

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Originally Posted by Marketing

Indeed about the money being sprung from thin air - obviously $92 quadrillion is simply on a different scale though (these sort of things happen pretty regularly, just not 6000x the USA's GDP normally :L I guess in terms of unaccountable money, that would essentially be how a lot of fraud works (get the persons details, buy a watch - money was never really there etc)



Simply wouldn't work, I'm afraid. I guess technically if PayPal had the money to give he could have then taken some out and bought something STRAIGHT away, otherwise the they would have just gotten it back (and they probably would get it off him if eh did buy something.



This is correct - as I say, $92 quadrillion would be 1,179,000 Bill Gates', or about 6000x the United States of America's GDP.

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How wouldn't it work, though? ;o I don't understand xD Couldn't he just have taken $100,000 of it. That sort of money is in existance so why can't he just take that amount?

Ahaa I'm confused xD

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Originally Posted by :Cerys

How wouldn't it work, though? ;o I don't understand xD Couldn't he just have taken $100,000 of it. That sort of money is in existance so why can't he just take that amount?

Ahaa I'm confused xD

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Assuming the same applies to PayPal as it does to banking, this would be retaining wrongful credit - which would be a crime, and could land you in jail.

If a bank accidently credits you with £2000000, that money would not be yours and if you spent it, they would be on to you faster than you could say "I'm rich" aha. THe same applies to payments by employers, and if someone paid money into your account accidently.

EDIT: After a quick search, what I was talking about comes under the 1968 Theft Act

Id just withdraw a million and be on my merry way, what would you even do with that much money?

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Originally Posted by AlexJRiley

Id just withdraw a million and be on my merry way, what would you even do with that much money?

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Get arrested.

A million isn't really enough to live on for life anyway.

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Originally Posted by Marketing

Get arrested.

A million isn't really enough to live on for life anyway.

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It was their mistake, I couldn't be arrested for that. I could do a damn site more with a million than I can do now

I'm very sure there's either an act or a clause in paypals t & c which would prohibit you from taking the money. Even if something went wrong in paypals systems, you still know the 92 quadrillion isn't yours/wasn't rightfully gained. So if you spent a penny of it , they'd Chase you down.

---------- Post added 20-07-2013 at 10:05 AM ----------

Copy and pasting is a nightmare, so ill basically sum up that paypal's user agreement says they won't be held liable for any errors like the above because it is deemed as a circumstance "out of their control" (unless someone purposefully put 92 quadrillion in there). I'll try and find the bit about you not being able to spend it, but marketing might have already posted it.

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Originally Posted by AlexJRiley

It was their mistake, I couldn't be arrested for that.

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Yes. You. Could.

When you understand the topic better, tell me otherwise :L If a bank sends you money accidentally that does NOT make it your money to keep. Sorry to break that bit of news to you.

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Originally Posted by Marketing

Assuming the same applies to PayPal as it does to banking, this would be retaining wrongful credit - which would be a crime, and could land you in jail.

If a bank accidently credits you with £2000000, that money would not be yours and if you spent it, they would be on to you faster than you could say "I'm rich" aha. THe same applies to payments by employers, and if someone paid money into your account accidently.

EDIT: After a quick search, what I was talking about comes under the 1968 Theft Act

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Yes, I know it's illegal. I'm not stupid. But you stated that it 'simply wouldn't work' which is why I asked why can he not take the money or a percentage of it. Never questioned the legality in it so I don't really know why you're telling me this..

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Originally Posted by :Cerys

Yes, I know it's illegal. I'm not stupid. But you stated that it 'simply wouldn't work' which is why I asked why can he not take the money or a percentage of it. Never questioned the legality in it so I don't really know why you're telling me this..

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Because if he took a percentage of it, they'd just take it back...

I mean by it wouldn't work, as you take it but you don't actually get it as you would soon lose it again.

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Originally Posted by Marketing

Because if he took a percentage of it, they'd just take it back...

I mean by it wouldn't work, as you take it but you don't actually get it as you would soon lose it again.

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What about those people a while ago, hm? A bank accidently put money into their account, they took it and ran off to another country. I don't know if they're still out there now, but as far as I'm aware, they've just vanished. Gone with the money etc.

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Originally Posted by :Cerys

What about those people a while ago, hm? A bank accidently put money into their account, they took it and ran off to another country. I don't know if they're still out there now, but as far as I'm aware, they've just vanished. Gone with the money etc.

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Ah, so they are spending a life in hiding. Now that does sound fun, being disconnected from any friends and family you had. How exciting.

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Originally Posted by Maatt

How does £60 quaddrillion even exist lol. I'd ask for money as compensation for the troubles I've been caused.

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yeah, the guy must've gone through hell when that money showed up on his statement.

It hardly caused any inconvenience at all :p

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Originally Posted by Marketing

Ah, so they are spending a life in hiding. Now that does sound fun, being disconnected from any friends and family you had. How exciting.

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Yeah, but with the amount of money they got away with.. ;) but anyway, back to my point; it is evidently possible to run off with a percentage of it if you could grab it before the error was noticed.

That would be such an amazing shock, if only!

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Originally Posted by :Cerys

Yeah, but with the amount of money they got away with.. ;) but anyway, back to my point; it is evidently possible to run off with a percentage of it if you could grab it before the error was noticed.

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If the money was really there, when you could potentially put a large enough sum in your bank account to try and run - and then end up getting caught, get sent to prison, and look a **** on worldwide news. And if you weren't caught, you'd lose all contact with your old family and friends.

So technically yes, it is possible, but realistically in the end it wouldn't have gained you anything at all.

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Originally Posted by Matts

yeah, the guy must've gone through hell when that money showed up on his statement.

It hardly caused any inconvenience at all :p

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Yeah but It could be an easy way to get some money out of the whole ordeal. + it shouldn't have happened in the first place so he could argue his case. ;l I would anyway l0l, see where it got me.

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Originally Posted by Marketing

If the money was really there, when you could potentially put a large enough sum in your bank account to try and run - and then end up getting caught, get sent to prison, and look a **** on worldwide news. And if you weren't caught, you'd lose all contact with your old family and friends.

So technically yes, it is possible, but realistically in the end it wouldn't have gained you anything at all.

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Simply wouldn't work, I'm afraid.

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So technically it would work, then. ;) Has been a good discussion, see you in the next current affairs thread! :)

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Originally Posted by :Cerys

So technically it would work, then. ;) Has been a good discussion, see you in the next current affairs thread! :)

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The art of selective reading is incredible, isn't it? Let's quote my WHOLE post that you just did a Daily Mail-esque quote from;

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Simply wouldn't work, I'm afraid. I guess technically if PayPal had the money to give he could have then taken some out and bought something STRAIGHT away, otherwise the they would have just gotten it back (and they probably would get it off him if eh did buy something.

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I immediately said "I guess technically ... did buy something" (I assume you understand what three dots inside the quotation marks mean :rolleyes:). You could try and take some money, and if you did get it (which I immediately said could technically happen for a very small percentage of it), you could try and spend it. But if you did that you would end up in prison, or your life as you know it would be over. SO, in terms of actually enjoying the money without any fear of being a wanted person, it "simply wouldn't work".

Now, next time you try and quote me, why not read it in context of the entire post ;)

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Originally Posted by Daltron

id take it nd go into hiding

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IMAGINE THE FORT YOU COULD AFFORD TO BUILD TO HIDE IN

I swear he never knew the money was in his account until he read the statement and by that time it was not in the account anyway. So he couldn't of taken it.