crowdology/paypal payments query

I'm asking on behalf of a friend, who wanted to cash in his Crowdology credits and send the resulting paypal credit to someone else, as a gift.

Things have got a bit complicated, as he doesn't (yet) have a Paypal account, never having needed one, and from what I can gather he's clicked on something on the Crowdology site, which has 'cashed' his credits for him and his balance is now showing as zero.

He is now wondering where his credits have all gone to!

My guess is that Crowdology have assumed that the email address he has given them is in fact also his PayPal account, and have sent the credits there. However, as I say, he hasn't actually opened a PayPal account yet.

What would be the best thing to do in this situation? If he were to set up a PayPal account now, using that email address, would the credits be there waiting for him, or is it more likely they'll bounce back to his Crowdology account, or (his worst fear) that they've been lost somewhere..