- A Chinese stock trading app sent $15.6 million into the account of an unsuspecting man in Guizhou.
- The man said he only had $940 in his account previously, CCTV reported.
- The app company said the money was part of a routine test it conducts on the weekends.
A man in China discovered on Christmas Day that he mysteriously became a millionaire overnight after a system test for his stock trading app dumped $15.6 million into his account.
The man, identified only by his last name Long, realized at 2.30 p.m. on Christmas Day that his assets had surged by 100 million renminbi, or $15.6 million, state media outlet CCTV Finance reported.
Long, who lives in the southwestern province of Guizhou, said he regularly dabbles in stocks, but had so far only invested around $940 via the trading app Changjiang Securities E-Stock.
In his excitement, Long sent screenshots of his portfolio value to his friends.
But his newfound wealth barely lasted a day. Shortly after receiving the money, Long's entire account balance was wiped out — including the $940 he had put into the app.
Changjiang Securities' customer service told him the windfall was due to a weekend system test and that it had retrieved the money from his account. The company said the cash he originally invested will be returned in the next few days, per CCTV Finance.
Changjiang Securities did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
"I told him: For these few minutes, you can be a multimillionaire," a friend of Long's, identified as Ou, told the outlet.
Long's brush with wealth has attracted widespread attention in China, with posts about his unlikely story accumulating nearly 170 million views on the social media platform Weibo.
"At least he can say he was a multimillionaire once in his life," commented one user on Long's video interview.
"What kind of a test is this? A psychological test?" said another.
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