Crooks Steal Church Cash for Sex Crime Victims

Scammers in late August made just over $600,000 after breaking into the bank accounts of a Catholic Diocese, claiming the funds are for victims of paedophile priests. The scammers took advantage of people to use as money mules, stealing the money from the Catholic Diocese of Des Moines, Iowa. The scammers posed as a New-York based international finance firm, "the Impeccable Group", and offered the mules a bogus work-at-home job.

These mules were sent money from the compromised bank account, which was then sent to an overseas account. According to security blogger Brian Krebs, one of the mules became suspicious when asked to transfer $30,000 via two transfers in late August, but was reassured that the cash was destined for legal settlements for the victims of sex-abuse.

"They told me it was going to be payouts to some of the settlements in the sex crimes cases against the Church", said Daniel Huggins, 29, who was on of the mules. Daniel made $800 from his involvement, which he used to pay off credit debt, but has now been told to expect a call from the bank. The bank became aware of the scam in time to recover $180,000 for the church, and the church's insurance is set to cover the rest. The FBI is currently investigating.