Maine banks helped stop more than $46 million in attempted fraud against customers in 2025, according to a Maine Bankers Association survey of its members.
The Westbrook-based trade group said that banks combat fraud partly by educating customers to spot phishing scams and noted that tellers are front-line defenders using in-person interactions to catch suspicious withdrawals, check fraud and other crimes.
“Banks operating in Maine know their customers,” said Jim Roche, president of the Maine Bankers Association. “In our increasingly digital world, face-to-face relationships where bankers are familiar with their customers are becoming increasingly important in the fight against fraud.”
He told Mainebiz that the survey was not a random sample, but more of a snapshot to better understand the work that banks do to fight fraud against customers. The organization asked members how much fraud they prevented last year, targeted specifically at customers and not the banks themselves.
“Examples are things like romance scams and impersonations that lead customers, often seniors, into seemingly important, but fraudulent transactions,” Roche explained.
“We’re talking about situations in which the customer … divulges account numbers and passwords or withdraws money at the fraudster’s request, not anything the bank has done wrong or inappropriately,” he added.
In 2025, the Federal Trade Commission received three million consumer fraud reports totaling $15.9 billion in losses, an agency official told the Joint Economic Committee in late March.
That was up from 2024, when consumers filed 2.6 million fraud reports and reported more than $12 billion in losses, according to the testimony.
The Maine Bankers Association noted that consumers can help prevent fraud by staying vigilant, using strong passwords with two-factor authentication, using secure payment methods and verifying callers and senders.
Mainebiz reported on banks’ efforts to combat check fraud in a November 2023 cover story entitled, “Keeping fraud in check.”
