A $92 quadrillion mistake made a Pennsylvania man an overnight quadrillionaire last week when he logged onto his PayPal account and saw a credit of $92,233,720,368,547,800.
But it was, of course, too good to be true.
Chris Reynolds, 56, of Media, Pa., received his monthly statement from the money-transfer company last Friday and was shocked to see a 17-digit, $92 quadrillion deposit. He has been a PayPal customer for about 10 years and generally uses it to buy and sell items on eBay, such as vintage car parts.
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"I'm just feeling like a million bucks," Reynolds told Philly.com of his initial reaction. "At first I thought that I owed quadrillions. It was quite a big surprise."
Reynolds, who with his wife owns public relations firm Reynolds Ink, logged on to his online account again and saw that the balance had been corrected to zero.
The quadrillion-dollar fortune would have catapulted Reynolds to the top of the world's richest man list, easily eclipsing Bill Gates' $73.9 billion.
Reynolds had big plans for that money.
"I'm a very responsible guy," he said. "I would pay the national debt down first. Then I would buy the Phillies, if I could get a great price."
Even after he learned of the PayPal error, Reynolds donated $30 to the Democratic party of Delaware County Council.
"I was moved to be really generous by good fortune," he told Philly.com.
Since the overnight quadrillionaire mix-up, Reynolds has received another email from PayPal, this time asking him to update his payment information.
"The sad part is that I got word that they still need me to renew the credit card that's attached to this account," he said. "So, even though I have $90 quadrillion, they still don't trust me."
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