A public relations worker was “quite surprised” to find he was the richest person on the planet after PayPal mistakenly credited his account with over a thousand times the world’s GDP.

Chris Reynolds, 56, opened an email from the online payment site to find his account balance was $92,233,720,368,547,800 – or $92 quadrillion. The total wealth of the world is estimated to be just $200 trillion.

Reynolds, from Pennsylvania, told the Philadelphia Daily News: "At first I thought that I owed quadrillions. It was quite a big surprise."

But the huge windfall didn’t last long as after logging on to the site Reynolds found his balance was back to $0.

Had the transfer been upheld, the father of three says he would have been sensible with his money. Reynolds said: "I'm a very responsible guy. I would pay the national debt down first. Then I would buy the Phillies [Philadelphia's baseball team], if I could get a great price."

The gaffe left Reynolds in a charitable mood and he donated $30 to his local Democratic councillor, despite not being a quadrillionaire.

Reynolds, who owns a public relations firm with his wife, has been a PayPal customer for about 10 years and uses it to buy and sell items on eBay, including vintage car parts. He said he usually spends no more than $100 a month using PayPal.

PayPal didn’t comment on the case.