IRS Employees Charged With Sneaking Into Records

Five employees at a California branch of the Internal Revenue Service have been charged with illegally inspecting citizens’ tax information, ComputerWorld reports. Exactly whom the workers were snooping on was not disclosed, but there were up to 13 victims, all in 2006. Court dates on misdemeanor charges are pending for all suspects.

They were caught by the service’s own security system, which routinely checks employees’ computer activity. Said an IRS rep, “They knew they were not supposed to do that and they knew they were going to be audited.” (More IRS stories.)