Red Wing parish is hit via Internet heist; $94,000 taken

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Computer hackers are apparently to blame for the theft of $94,000 from a Red Wing church.

The Church of St. Joseph reported to Red Wing police on March 20 that a large sum of money was taken from the church's bank account without consent.

The Rev. Thomas Kommers says in a letter to the congregation that what's even more shocking than the amount is that they were attacked over the Internet.

He says the thieves used a complicated Internet virus to gain private information that was used to execute electronic money transfers. The money was then split into smaller amounts and sent to other banks in the United States.

The church doubts that any personal information of individual church members was abused. StarTribune