You need not rob Peter to pay paul…. Have heard
of the comment that ‘a friend in need is…..’ – a newsarticle screamed – ‘a pal
may pay you 1 dollar but Paypal will pay you a $92 quadrillion’…. Thousand has
3 zeroes; Crore has 7 zeroes….. and Quadrillion has……….15…… head spinning… it
is : 1,000,000,000,000,000 (one thousand
million million; 10^{15}; [that is only
one version – the other one puts it even more higher]
There are some who are not comfortable of ‘technology –
especially that of online transactions’…….. they are not entirely wrong.. every
now and then, you get to hear stories of wrong debits, double debits and more
as people struggle to get their money back.
The ease of shopping and comparing products and prices online has made
it an attractive option for many shoppers.
Some of us instantaneously click the buy button providing our Credit
card details or use Net banking [at the back of mind you tend to think whether
it is totally safe]……. There are some sites which claim to offer an extra layer
of security. Today's computing
environment is obviously a lot more sophisticated than it was a few years ago.
When the Internet was new, there was barely a trace of criminal activity. Unfortunately, as the Internet has become a
way of life, and the population has grown, so have the less desirable
elements.
The safety begins from the most fundamental things like
never allowing physical access to others of your personal computer; keeping
strong passwords and more…. still ~ the complete safety is only a
perception. In
Jan 2012, I posted about the need for checking our bank accounts regularly and
ensuring that there is no suspicious activity.
It was about an incident where an Indian teacher got the shock of his
life when he checked his bank account online and found 490bn rupees
($9.8bn). Parijat Saha expected his
balance to be $200 and could not believe his eyes - but a check at an ATM
confirmed his billionaire status, on paper at least. The honest Mr Saha rang the
State Bank of India (SBI) to point out the error. Red-faced bank officials would not comment,
but sources say the funds were "uncleared" and he could not have
withdrawn the money if he had tried. Mr
Saha's monthly salary as a school teacher in the eastern state of West Bengalis
35,000 rupees ($700). But his account balance of $9.8bn is closer to India
PayPal is a global e-commerce business allowing payments
and money transfers to be made through the Internet. Online money transfers
serve as electronic alternatives to paying with traditional paper methods, such
as checks and money orders. Here is the interesting news [source BBC &
Philadelphia Daily News] of $92 quadrillion credit. It is stated that Delaware County
After absorbing the initial shock, Reynolds logged on to
PayPal's site and saw that his balance was listed there as zero. Still,
Reynolds said, the imaginary epic windfall left him feeling charitable. After opening
the email, he donated $30 to the Democratic slate for Delaware County Council.
If the prodigious account credit were true, Reynolds - who with his wife owns
Reynolds Ink, a public-relations firm - said he'd pay down debts with the
money. Last month, PayPal announced PayPal Galactic, an initiative to expand
its payment-transfer business beyond Earth. Perhaps Reynolds' astronomical
PayPal credit could get him a few trips to the moon, or at least a nice stay at
a space hotel.
The credit of such a huge sum was an obvious
error - "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.
I had on another occasion posted of the
cardinal rule that ‘people will be punished’ when they make mistakes and the
penal action would depend on the gravity of the error. That post was about a
clerk who was to transfer an amount of
64.20 euros (£54.60) [Rs.5000/- approx];
dozed off with his finger on the keyboard, resulting in a transfer of
222,222,222.22 euros.[Rs.1733 crores] …. and his supervisor also failed to
check the transaction. The Bank took action initially and the supervisor was
fired for allegedly failing to check the transaction. A German labour court ruled that the bank
supervisor was unfairly sacked for missing
the multi-million-euro error of
the colleague who fell asleep during the
financial transaction. Newspaper reports suggested that the Court heard
that on the day of the erroneous transaction, she had checked 812 documents for
mistakes, with most taking just over a second of scrutiny. The judges ruled
that there had been no malicious intent on her behalf, and that she should have
received a warning. As a result, they ordered the bank to reinstate the
supervisor, saying her work contract could not be terminated.
Moral of the story.. : ‘do transact more on internet….. just as
mistakes take away your money…. There is also the theoretical possibility of
some windfall gains … and you becoming a billionaire’.
With regards – S. Sampathkumar
18th July 2013.
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