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"The National Westminster Bank admitted last month that it keeps
personal information about its customers - such as their political affiliation
on computer.
But now Computer Weekly reveals that a financial institution, sadly unnamed, has
gone one better and moved into the realm of personal abuse.
The institution decided to mailshot 2000 of its richest customers, inviting them
to buy extra services. One of its computer programmers wrote a program to search
through its databases and select its customers automatically. He tested
the program with an imaginary customer called Rich Bastard. Unfortunately, an
error resulted in all 2000 letters being addressed "Dear Rich
Bastard."
The luckless programmer was subsequently sacked."