A US man briefly became the world's richest person - with a wealth one thousand times greater than the GDP of the whole planet - after PayPal erroneously credited him with $92 quadrillion (£60 quadrillion).

The online money-transfer firm admitted that they credited Chris Reynolds, 56, of Pennsylvania, with $92,233,720,368,547,800 briefly before correcting their error.

The mistake briefly made Mr Reynolds the world's richest man on paper and also the world's only quadrillionaire.

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Mr Reynolds' wealth easily eclipsed that of the current world's richest man Mexican telecom mogul Carlos Slim - who is worth a mere $67billion.

Paypal withdrew the money after realising their error but offered to make a donation to a charity of Mr Reynolds' choice.

Mr Reynolds told the Philadelphia Daily News the statement made him feel "like a million bucks", adding, "At first I thought that I owed quadrillions. It was quite a big surprise."

He also told the paper that being a "very responsible guy", the first thing he would do with the money would be "pay the national debt down first."