Don't Let We Energies See This

H/T: Belle

A Malaysian man has received a $218 trillion phone bill.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- A Malaysian man said he nearly fainted when he received a $218 trillion phone bill and was ordered to pay up within 10 days or face prosecution, a newspaper reported Monday.

Yahaya Wahab said he disconnected his late father's phone line in January after he died and settled the 84 ringgit ($23) bill, the New Straits Times reported.

But Telekom Malaysia later sent him a 806,400,000,000,000.01 ringgit ($218 trillion) bill for recent telephone calls along with orders to settle within 10 days or face legal proceedings, the newspaper reported.

Nearly fainted? I'd be laughing myself silly. I'd have to call just to see if they could work out a payment plan.

It wasn't clear whether the bill was a mistake, or if Yahaya's father's phone line was used illegally after after his death.

Not sure if it's a mistake?

Let me put it into perspective.


1. At $1/second it would take 6.9 million years to rack up a phone bill this size.


2. Assuming he'd been billed for 90 days (since January), the bill is roughly $1.68 million PER MINUTE. What country (planet) was the guy supposedly calling? Are the phone sex operators worth it on Neptune?


3. The GDP of Malaysia is $248.7 billion.


4. The GDP of the United States is $12.4 trillion.


5. The GDP of the WORLD is $59.6 trillion.


6. Using $42.22 per once, there is $6.219 billion in gold stored in Fort Knox.

Did the phone company screw up? You bet they did. The longer they take to admit it, the funnier it will be.

By the way, what's with the 0.01 ringgits? Rub it in, why don't you? Honestly, this snafu looks like the strangest rounding error in history.

Update: I just thought to check the US National Debt (8.4 trillion). This guy owes more than 25 times that and he hasn't even fought a war!