€230 million in our PayPal account – Murphy’s Law at work

Over the weekend, news broke about significant security issues at PayPal. ZAP-Hosting was also affected – and on Friday morning we could hardly believe our eyes: our PayPal account suddenly showed transactions in the range of hundreds of millions of euros. For a few hours, it looked like we had become a unicorn overnight. 🦄💶

In true Murphy’s Law fashion, this happened just as our CEO was on a flight starting his vacation. When he landed, his phone was already overflowing with calls, WhatsApp messages and company chat notifications – not exactly the relaxing start he had planned. 😉

📊 A look inside our PayPal account

Image 1 – “WTF?!”
Suddenly, massive amounts appeared in our PayPal account – numbers we had never seen before. For a moment, it felt like stepping into another reality:

Image 2 – “WOW!”
Not all of these payments were actually executed, which is why the numbers in this statistic appear even higher than our temporary PayPal balance. Still: a once-in-a-lifetime sight for a hosting company like ours.

The reality: these were faulty transaction attempts related to the known PayPal issue. Some payments were initially processed, but we immediately reversed them on Friday evening. Most importantly: no damage occurred to our customers or to us.

While we can smile now about our short-lived “billionaire moment”, we take security and transparency very seriously. This incident highlights how even regional companies like us in Münster can be directly affected by global payment issues.

In the meantime, we used the opportunity to expand our affiliate program and launch new products for gamers and server administrators – this time without any unexpected surprises. 🚀