http://cnn.com/2000/WORLD/europe/01/02/y2k.millionaire.reut/index.html

January 2, 2000 Web posted at: 6:50 AM EST (1150 GMT)

BERLIN (Reuters) -- A German salesman became a millionaire on paper when a malfunctioning bank computer inflated his bank account to more than 12 million marks ($6.2 million).

Whether the mistake was caused by the millennium bug or was an unrelated problem was not immediately clear.

The Bild am Sonntag newspaper reported on Sunday that the salesman from Bergheim near Cologne in western Germany found a total of 12,999,997 marks credited to his name when he logged into his home banking computer account.

Not only was the amount wrong, but so was the date -- December 30, 1899.

The millennium bug stems from mainly older computer systems which were programmed to read only the last two digits of a year. If left uncorrected, it was feared systems would misread 2000 as 1900, causing systems to malfunction or even crash.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

According to all previous news reports, the banking industry was 100% remediated P.S. This article was listed under the "fringe" section of news. The chances that this was an isolated incident are probably very slim.

Pollies - A car hitting a pole didn't cause this.

Doomers - Everybody study every single statement that you get. Pollies - Y2K is a hoax, don't bother double checking your statements.

-- Guy Daley (guydaley@bwn.net), January 02, 2000

Answers

Nicely written commentary, Guy. I like your sense of humor.

-- cory (kiyoinc@ibm.XOUT.net), January 02, 2000.

Guy,

good catch mate, this is exactly the sort of banking problem I (and Cory natch) have been talking about.

imported corrupt data sloshing around - not good :o)

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me, I would have ordered a load of gold from monex and skedaddled...

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), January 02, 2000.

Ha ha. This is "funny" because it's obvious, just like all the "1900" summonses.

It's the wrong-but-plausible errors that'll give the problems. And guess what: they haven't been reported, and WON'T be reported because they're... wait for it... plausible and non-obvious.

Ha. Ha. Ha. Watch the tears roll down my face.

-- Servant (public_service@yahoo.com), January 02, 2000.

Wonder why news article didn't identify the bank or the man's name?

-- Cheryl (Transplant@Oregon.com), January 02, 2000.

Incidentally, what was the "jackpot" he won? Was it the hassle? The inconvenience? The unexpected responsibility to prove how much money he actually had? The unwanted publicity?

The hilarious consequences just never stop!

-- Servant (public_service@yahoo.com), January 02, 2000.

"Whether the mistake was caused by the millennium bug or was an unrelated problem was not immediately clear.... Not only was the amount wrong, but so was the date -- December 30, 1899."

With a date like that, it seems pretty clear to me.

-- Bruce (Please@make this mistake.in my account), January 02, 2000.