The woman tells WBZ-TV that she simply called the IRS to discuss a personal tax issue. Meanwhile, the IRS rep she was speaking to was on hold while trying to call into Stern’s program. At some point, Stern took the IRS rep’s call off hold, but the man didn’t realize that he was now on the air and he continued to discuss matters with the taxpayer.
In the WBZ footage above, you can hear Stern trying to get the man’s attention by shouting his name, while co-host Robin Quivers tells Howard, “If he’s working we can’t interrupt him.”
“I said, ‘Are you talking to Howard Stern?'” recalls the woman. “And he says something to the effect of ‘I was’ or ‘I was on hold’ or something like that.”
Enough of the woman’s info, including her personal phone number, got out during the call that she says she’s been the subject of prank calls and that she’s now considering her legal options.
“My phone number is out there,” she explains, “my personal conversation and I just feel terribly violated and I feel like I’m in jeopardy that my credit information might be out there and I’m just totally devastated.”
The IRS tells WBZ that it knows about the incident, presumably because they were all listening to the show when it happened, and that it’s looking into the situation.
“The IRS takes the confidentiality of taxpayer information very seriously, and we have high standards that we expect and require employees to follow,” reads the statement.
The woman says she was told that the agent on the inadvertently broadcast call “was sent home on administrative leave and that the case was under investigation.”
by Chris Morran via Consumerist
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