$218 Trillion Dollar Phone Bill

I just found the funniest article on Techdirt. It seems a man in Malaysia has been sent a phone bill for approximately $218 trillion dollars.

The story is that it was the man’s father’s phone line, which he had disconnected in January after his father’s death. At the time, he paid the remaining $23 and assumed everything was settled. Somewhere along the way, though, something got messed up, and the man received this new bill, with the demand that he pay it off within 10 days. You have to give the Associated Press credit for admitting that: “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.” However, you have to wonder just how many phone calls it would take, between January when the last bill was paid and now, to create a $218 trillion phone bill. We hope the phone company hadn’t started spending on infrastructure improvements while awaiting the payment of the bill.

I would have a heart attack if I got that bill…