PayPal Credit Card Charges Man $81B For Gas

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
Some guy pays for his gas with a PayPal credit card and ended up with a bill for $81,400,836,908.00. Even funnier, the guy had to argue with the credit card company and “prove” he didn’t buy that much gas. Stupid gas guzzling Camaro.

“Somebody from a foreign country who spoke in broken English argued with me for 10 to 15 minutes,” Zamora said. ” ‘Did you get the gas?’ he asked. Like I had to prove that I didn’t pump $81,400,836,908 in gas!” He would have needed more than 3 billion fill-ups of the amount he actually pumped into his tank in order to reach that outrageous sum.
 
I won't be caught dead using PayPal. With zero outside oversight you're sure to get screwed eventually. Just Google Paypal for some horror stories and scams they perpetrate on their own customers.

Both eBay and PayPal are a no go for me.
 
the moral of the story is not pay cash, its dont use paypal for anything except accepting money and putting it straight into your bank account the second it hits your paypal account...
 
You sure this dude wasn't driving around in a Space Shuttle?

P.S. Paypal = teh sux!!
 
the moral of the story is not pay cash, its dont use paypal for anything except accepting money and putting it straight into your bank account the second it hits your paypal account...

Same here except I even have a separate bank account linked to my paypal just for online usage so that they cannot touch my main account. (its not like there is much in my main account anyway though)
 
Fuck Paypal, they now charge you fees even for non-CC! Bullshit, too bad there's no alternative.
 
The guy read it wrong, the charge wasn't 81B, that number was the merchant ID.
 
I like how the guy had to go over to the station with a copy of the receipt. I would of made them come over and showed me their purchase order for 81 billion worth of gas.
 
Is there even that much gas in all of Washington State, let alone the whole country (in a day at least)?
 
But a spokeswoman for PayPal, Sara Gorman, said Friday that Zamora may have been confused by a merchant identification number that appeared along with details about the transaction in the e-mail. “I can assure you that we did not charge him $81 billion,” Gorman said.

The real moral of the story? Learn English? Give literacy a chance? Stick to cash if numbers and words confuse you?
 
According to the government 2007 data http://www.eia.doe.gov/basics/quickoil.html

390 million gallons consumed per day times avg price of gas today $1.93

= almost 793 million dollars purchased per day.

2006 data, world consumption of oil near 85 million barrels. 1 barrel = 42 gallons so

3.57 billion gallons per day. Avg daily price of gas from 2007 numbers http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2007-04-19-world-gas_N.htm

is $4.87

so 3.57 billion gallons times $4.87 = 17.4 billion dollars.

This guy could fill everyone's tank up on the planet for 4 straight days :)
 
It was here in Spokane. I saw the story and car. Real Gas Hog.

Of course 81B is a Whole Lot of Money. I wonder if he has rewards card?

I get 100 bucks for every 10k. Humm......

What's that 810 Thousand in Rewards or such?

DM
 
This type of thing actually happens more frequently than you'd expect. On NYE, someone at one of the the MGM Mirage properties ran a charge through for $3 million. It was supposed to be like $300.

However, a proper CC company (read: not Paypal) would call up the merchant upon immediately seeing the charge and confirm it was actually for that much money.

And yes, there is an alternative - revolutionmoneyexchange.com --> MUCH better.
 
I'm amazed the CC authorization even went though. Mine freaks out of you go over $525 in a single transaction, can't even imagine what would happen if I tried to charge $81b on it! :D
 
I'm amazed the CC authorization even went though. Mine freaks out of you go over $525 in a single transaction, can't even imagine what would happen if I tried to charge $81b on it! :D

I feel yah, I was embarrassed trying to buy my wife a diamond ring because apparently my debit card has a 1500 dollar per day spending cap.
 
Same here except I even have a separate bank account linked to my paypal just for online usage so that they cannot touch my main account. (its not like there is much in my main account anyway though)

Paypal wont go into your bank account....

They send you the bill, if you don't pay, they send you to collections. Sure, if you like bad credit you can not pay.
 
His debit card was over the limit because some gas stations increased the hold amount on the card when you fill up.It used to be $40 but when gas hit $3.75 people couldn't completely fill their tank. Some stations knocked it up to $75 or $100. That amount is authorized on your card before you fill. the amount you pump is later charged against that authorization.
 
I feel yah, I was embarrassed trying to buy my wife a diamond ring because apparently my debit card has a 1500 dollar per day spending cap.

Really? My debit card has a spending cap of $500 every three days. Not a big deal but a real PITA when trying to buy new hardware or other major purchases, because I usually have to call the bank more than once because some idiot didn't put in a limit raise in all the systems.
 
Of course 81B is a Whole Lot of Money. I wonder if he has rewards card?

I get 100 bucks for every 10k. Humm......

What's that 810 Thousand in Rewards or such?

DM

1% of 81 Billion is 810 Thousand? Your grasp of numbers is impressive. Perhaps you could be AIG's next CEO.
 
Always pay cash for gas, even if they get it right with a credit card the put an extra 70.00 or so on the bill till the transaction clears.
 
Always pay cash for gas, even if they get it right with a credit card the put an extra 70.00 or so on the bill till the transaction clears.

Arco charges $100. That is illegal in my opinion because they get to skim the interest off that from their accounts. It's racketeering.
 
Just realized that the default currency conversion on PayPal was letting them handle hit insetad of your VISA/Mastercard which meant I lost about 5 % of the ebay purchase just in currency conversion compared to choosing the option of letting your credit card to the conversion.
 
I won't be caught dead using PayPal. With zero outside oversight you're sure to get screwed eventually. Just Google Paypal for some horror stories and scams they perpetrate on their own customers.

Both eBay and PayPal are a no go for me.

Just out of curiosity, which financial institution you are actually using is subject to outside oversight?
 
Arco charges $100. That is illegal in my opinion because they get to skim the interest off that from their accounts. It's racketeering.

Um, no. There's a difference between a 'hold' and a 'charge.' A 'hold' is placed to ensure funds are available in the credit account until the 'charge' is places and cleared, so someone with a $1,000 credit limit doesn't buy $600 from Company X and then $500 from Company Y. The 'hold' amount is not deposited into the merchant's account-- only the 'charge' amount is.

In catalog and Internet sales, the merchant is not supposed to charge the card until the order is ready to ship. If there is a significant amount of time between the placing of the order and the ship date, there is the possibility that other transactions on the credit account might reduce the available credit enough that the merchant's charge would not clear. Alternately, it is possible the buyer never had the credit available to make the purchase in the first place, wasting the merchant's time and possibly money if the purchase was for a special, not easily resold item.

To protect against this, merchants are supposed to process a hold against the credit account first, for the dollar amount of the purchase. This hold more-or-less guarantees that credit is available for the future charge. Once the merchant is ready to ship, the merchant processes the charge and references the hold identifier, turning the hold into a charge. As an aside, I've run into merchants who don't quite grasp this concept and perform holds and charges independently, causing the available credit to be reduced by twice the purchase amount until the hold expires. This is especially problematic when using one-time 'Internet-safe credit numbers' offered by some credit companies, where you get a unique credit card number with a requested credit limit and expire date.

Anyway, the point is the hold is just a hold; the money goes nowhere until the actual charge is committed.
 
bad buyer, wouln't follow thru. won't pay my transaction fee! f++++++++ would NOT sell again!
 
Um, no. There's a difference between a 'hold' and a 'charge.' A 'hold' is placed to ensure funds are available in the credit account until the 'charge' is places and cleared, so someone with a $1,000 credit limit doesn't buy $600 from Company X and then $500 from Company Y. The 'hold' amount is not deposited into the merchant's account-- only the 'charge' amount is.

In catalog and Internet sales, the merchant is not supposed to charge the card until the order is ready to ship. If there is a significant amount of time between the placing of the order and the ship date, there is the possibility that other transactions on the credit account might reduce the available credit enough that the merchant's charge would not clear. Alternately, it is possible the buyer never had the credit available to make the purchase in the first place, wasting the merchant's time and possibly money if the purchase was for a special, not easily resold item.

To protect against this, merchants are supposed to process a hold against the credit account first, for the dollar amount of the purchase. This hold more-or-less guarantees that credit is available for the future charge. Once the merchant is ready to ship, the merchant processes the charge and references the hold identifier, turning the hold into a charge. As an aside, I've run into merchants who don't quite grasp this concept and perform holds and charges independently, causing the available credit to be reduced by twice the purchase amount until the hold expires. This is especially problematic when using one-time 'Internet-safe credit numbers' offered by some credit companies, where you get a unique credit card number with a requested credit limit and expire date.

Anyway, the point is the hold is just a hold; the money goes nowhere until the actual charge is committed.

Well said. In fact, since you are only required to pay 25 days after statement close without incurring any finance fees, YOU (the consumer) ar the one who is keeping the interest. Given also the fact that CC's give 2-5% cash back for gas purchases, CC's are by far the best way to buy gas. Unlike debit cards there is no money going out of your account with a credit transaction. The "hold" is of no consequence unless you are right at your CC limit and it prevents you from charging something else. But you should not be at your limit anyway ;)
 
Um, no. There's a difference between a 'hold' and a 'charge.' A 'hold' is placed to ensure funds are available in the credit account until the 'charge' is places and cleared, so someone with a $1,000 credit limit doesn't buy $600 from Company X and then $500 from Company Y. The 'hold' amount is not deposited into the merchant's account-- only the 'charge' amount is.

In catalog and Internet sales, the merchant is not supposed to charge the card until the order is ready to ship. If there is a significant amount of time between the placing of the order and the ship date, there is the possibility that other transactions on the credit account might reduce the available credit enough that the merchant's charge would not clear. Alternately, it is possible the buyer never had the credit available to make the purchase in the first place, wasting the merchant's time and possibly money if the purchase was for a special, not easily resold item.

To protect against this, merchants are supposed to process a hold against the credit account first, for the dollar amount of the purchase. This hold more-or-less guarantees that credit is available for the future charge. Once the merchant is ready to ship, the merchant processes the charge and references the hold identifier, turning the hold into a charge. As an aside, I've run into merchants who don't quite grasp this concept and perform holds and charges independently, causing the available credit to be reduced by twice the purchase amount until the hold expires. This is especially problematic when using one-time 'Internet-safe credit numbers' offered by some credit companies, where you get a unique credit card number with a requested credit limit and expire date.

Anyway, the point is the hold is just a hold; the money goes nowhere until the actual charge is committed.

Excellent. I hadn't realized it was just a hold instead of a straight out charge in lieu of available funds. In that case I rescind my earlier statement of possibly illegality. Thanks.
 
Sue the shit out of paypal to make sure those !!%^@ don't pull something this stupid again.
 
Back
Top