Illustrator: Transparency/masked image printing issue

I edited an image in photoshop. The image was masked then set to grayscale in Photoshop and then "Placed" into Illustrator where I'm working in CMYK mode.
The background color in Illustrator is set to 0 0 0 100K. When I print the artwork, the masked area of the image (Which is transparent showing my background color) prints blacker than the backgound color of the whole artwork. When I went in with the eyedropper to read the CMYK value in masked area, it reads 75 68 67 90 where as it should read the background CMYK value 0 0 0 100K. This explains why it prints different intensity of blacks. I then went in to View -> Proof Colors to see what the printer should see, but the image looks perfectly fine there. So can anyone explain to me what I can do to fix this issue? Is this a known problem with Placing the image into an illustrator rather than opening it in illustrator, or it's only a printer issue?
Thanks in Advance.
Image attached in "Proof Color" View

Preferences -> Appearance of Black.
Set those both to Accurately. I don't know why they default to rich blacks when that's not always what is used. I would think most users would perfer to see ACCURATE colors.

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Hello, I'm looking for some expert advice for my print issue with image distortion (see above) on my files once setup and proofed by my printer.
I have a large PSD background file out of photoshop (CMYK, 170mb psd) that is being placed into an InDesign document. No preflight errors, all correct SWOP cmyk settings, and I keep having issues where images distort on my printers proofs - they seem unable to explain the issue and can't offer any other suggestions beyond ("just try resaving/uploading again" which of course has an added fee with each upload...).
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Why do I get a colored shadow behind shadow and feather transparency areas when printing?

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When laying out a file in InDesign, I do a lot of overlapping, feather and some drop shadow and always get a colored shadow behind the transparency area when printing out from a pdf. These files are being designed for print, which is what I thought InDesign was created for - as an updated alternative to Quark and Pagemaker? Here is what the printer says:
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Horgycat,
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If you are using a Windows or Mac Operating System, and the version number. To find the exact version, visit this link. Whatsmyos.
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I work on behalf of HP
Please click “Accept as Solution ” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.
Click the “Kudos Thumbs Up" to say “Thanks” for helping!

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Illustrator: Transparency/masked image printing issue

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