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ANZ cracks down on Facebook abuse

An ANZ employee set up a fake Facebook profile to track down missing customers who owed the bank money, the bank has confirmed today.
Written by Josh Taylor, Contributor and  AAP , Contributor

An ANZ employee set up a fake Facebook profile to track down missing customers who owed the bank money, the bank has confirmed today.

"Max Bourke", described as a single guy who enjoyed footy, poker and running on the beach, was created to contact customers with bad credit histories who had not updated their address details.

Fairfax newspapers reported on Wednesday that a large number of ANZ customers may have accepted Max Bourke as a "friend".

ANZ spokesperson Stephen Ries told ZDNet Australia that the — now deactivated — profile was registered by an employee from the bank's unsecured debt collections team in Melbourne.

"This type of rogue activity is neither approved nor sanctioned by ANZ and it is completely unacceptable," he said.

An investigation launched on Wednesday will determine how many employees are responsible for creating the profile.

It is unknown at this stage how long Max Bourke had been a member of Facebook, Ries said.

"We're taking this matter very seriously and we'll take appropriate disciplinary action when the internal investigation is concluded.

"We have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to inappropriate use of our internal systems."

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