Will Facebook act after agency is victim of “vile” Prince Philip slur?

An estate agency has apologised after a bogus employee posted offensive comments about Prince Philip on a newly-created fake Facebook account.

This is not the first attack on the samer agency via fake Facebook activity; it comes just a day after we reported that the Competition and Markets Authority had pushed Facebook into taking new action to combat fake postings.

Speaking to the Eastern Daily Press, a partner at the Norwich office of estate agency abbotFox - Samuel Le Good - explained the incident was being investigated after someone created a fake Facebook account claiming to be a staff member. 

Le Good tells the newspaper: "This person has never worked for abbotFox. They made up a profile and then another with a different picture and we were inundated with complaints, many understandably from veterans. However, those people who were up in arms are now giving us words of sympathy. We had enormous respect for Prince Philip and that's why we raised money for the Poppy Appeal last year. My own grandfather was in the Royal Navy and fought in the Second World War."

Abbotfox itself posted a public statement saying: "It is with great sadness that we must make a public statement about a malicious act inflicted upon abbotFox in an attempt to harm and disrupt our business.

"A member of the public has created a fake social media account falsifying that they work for abbotFox. This account has then posted vile and unforgivable comments about the recent passing of HRH Prince Philip.

"Understandably this has greatly upset and outraged some members of the public as it has us. This 'person' does not exist. AbbotFox and its employees absolutely do not share the views of this 'person' and we are a at a complete loss as to why someone would do this."

Last year the agency was reported to have complained to the police about activists in the Acorn rent union who staged a series of protests about the agency.

Shortly afterwards, negative Facebook reviews appeared about the agency.

Estate Agent Today has asked abbotFox if it has any additional comment.