ANZ condemns fake profile to catch out bad Aussie credit customers'

A bogus Facebook account has been created by one member of staff at the ANZ bank to try to catch out people who had moved house without informing the organisation.

A member of the debt collecting staff at the ANZ bank has created a fake Facebook account to try to catch out people with bad Aussie credit who had changed address.

The bank – which offers ANZ savings accounts – said it has launched an internal investigation to find out who the culprit is that invented the bogus profile – which was called Max Bourke.

And he then went about trying to befriend people with credit cards to find out where they had moved to.

A spokesman for the company noted that it did not approve of the actions of its member of staff and said it was "completely unacceptable".

He added: "Disciplinary action will be taken where any staff member is found to have breached ANZ's code of conduct and our policy on the use of technology. We are taking this matter incredibly seriously."

Earlier this month, the organisation upped its interest rates on deposit and lending products by 0.25 per cent.

By Emma North