
PayPal accidentally credits man $92 quadrillion - stehat
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/07/17/tech/paypal-error/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
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mvanvoorden
Is it me or do I see a hyphen in front of the amount, making him not the
richest guy in the world, but poorer than all nations of the world?

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jere
It appears so. I'm struggling to understand how the account holder and the
person who wrote this article missed it.

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mmmooo
don't know what kind of statement it is, but if it is a statement as in a
bill, an amount of $140 means 'you owe us $140'. A negative amount would in
turn mean 'we owe you'.

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chacham15
It says "Account Statement", so that cannot be the case. Also, if you look at
the activity: the refund is positive and the express checkout is negative.

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M4v3R
> So what would the newly minted quadrillionaire have done with the cash? "I
> probably would have paid down the national debt," he said.

Good citizen, thinks about his country first. As a matter of fact, he would
own 11000 times more money than there are US dollars in existence [1].

I also wonder where this specific number came from. It doesn't look like
anything familiar (like INT_MAX).

[1] [http://money.howstuffworks.com/how-much-money-is-in-the-
worl...](http://money.howstuffworks.com/how-much-money-is-in-the-world.htm)

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deletes
The number comes from a singed long long integer ( 64 bits )

2^63 = 9223372036854775808

bill === 9223372036854780000

difference is 4192, last two digits are used for cents.

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danso
I wonder when the error was detected? It's hard to tell, but it sounds like
the man notified PayPal himself. But I wonder if he hadn't, how long would it
take to trigger some mechanism in PayPal...I mean, aside from him trying to
transfer an amount in the quadrillions)? Would some kind of flag go off,
triggering a human doublecheck, if he started transferring quantities in the
millions every other week?

Of course, this leads to the obvious question: whatever error-detecting
mechanism would be triggered...why isn't it in place at the point which the
$92 quadrillion transaction is credited? A simple _" customer.balance <
TOTAL_KNOWN_SUM_OF_WORLDS_CURRENCY"_ would seem to suffice

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icebraining
_> Would some kind of flag go off, triggering a human doublecheck, if he
started transferring quantities in the millions every other week?_

People have got their account suspended for transferring and/or receiving a
few thousands. Pretty sure he wouldn't be able to transfer anything close to a
million before lock down, unless he had clearance.

In any case, it should be noted that the error only occurred in his email
statement. At no point in time could he have touched the money, since "So he
logged online -- and reality bit back. His account balance read $0."

 _> Of course, this leads to the obvious question: whatever error-detecting
mechanism would be triggered...why isn't it in place at the point which the
$92 quadrillion transaction is credited? A simple "customer.balance <
TOTAL_KNOWN_SUM_OF_WORLDS_CURRENCY" would seem to suffice_

Since it was only in the statement, it was probably an error in the reporting
engine, and not in his actual account ledger.

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jaydub
_Since it was only in the statement, it was probably an error in the reporting
engine, and not in his actual account ledger._

Oh summer interns

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josefresco
Being PayPal, I'm surprised they didn't lock his account, or charge him
abosrbant fees for the _mistake_. /end snark

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khuey
'exorbitant' is the word you're looking for.

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ColinWright
Some discussion already:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6053421](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6053421)

There are also several other submissions of the same story.

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mbesto
Not true. His account never got credited. Crediting assumes that his account
balance actually changed, only the report that was created provided
misinformation.

Data != information.

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JeremyMorgan
It was clearly a display error, its not like the guy could have paid off the
national debt considering the real money in that amount never existed in the
first place.

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chacham15
If, instead of being such a large amount, say it were twenty thousand dollars.
Thinking that he had a generous benefactor, the recipient went on a shopping
spree for ten thousand. Paypal, later determines that it was an error and
wants the money back. What is the law with regard to this situation?

Aside: is it just me or does there appear to be a minus in from of the sum in
the image?

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ExpiredLink
Probably only a display problem.

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jes5199
I was going to say "looks like they don't use double-entry bookkeeping!" ...
but if it's just a display bug, then nevermind.

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thehme
No sure about everyone else, but after this past year, I am wary about
anything CNN claims happened.

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suyash
"I would have paid down the national debt" \- This is a real hero!

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Aardwolf
It would have caused devaluation though.

