NEW YORK - When Mr Chris Reynolds opened his June PayPal e-mail statement, he got a shock.

The 56-year-old Pennsylvania man's account balance had swelled to a whopping US$92,233,720,368,547,800.

That's US$92 quadrillion.

"It's a curious thing. I don't know, maybe someone was having fun," Mr Reynolds said, CNN reported.

So he logged online, and reality bit back. His account balance read US$0. The correct amount.

PayPal admitted it made a mistake and offered to donate an unspecified amount of money to a cause of Mr Reynolds' choice.

"This was obviously an error and we appreciate that Mr Reynolds understands this was the case," the online money-transfer firm said in a statement, according to the BBC.