July 2026

Bath State Bank receives numerous questions about scams. Here are a few items to help you avoid a scam. 

1. Block unwanted calls and text messages. Take steps to block unwanted calls and to filter unwanted text messages.
2. Don’t give your personal or financial information in response to a request that you didn’t expect. Honest organizations won’t call, email or text to ask for your birth date or Social Security, bank account and credit card numbers.
3. If you get an email or text message from a company you do business with and you think it’s real, it’s still best not to click on any links. Instead, contact them using a web site you know is trustworthy or look up their phone number. Don’t call a number they gave you or the number from your Caller ID.
4. Resist the pressure to act immediately. Honest businesses will give you time to make a decision. Anyone who pressures you to pay or give them your personal information is a scammer.
5. Know how scammers tell you to pay. Never pay someone who insists that you can only pay with cryptocurrency, a wire transfer service like Western Union or MoneyGram, a payment app or a gift card. Never deposit their check and send money back to them.
6. Talk to someone you trust. Before you do anything else, tell someone — a friend, a family member, a banker — what happened. Talking about it could help you realize it’s a scam.

Online banking has made it easier to do many things such as pay bills, view balances and make remote deposits. Even with all these improvements to the banking experience, some users still forget about balancing their accounts and checking their statements in a timely manner.

Setting up text alerts for transactions is a good way to spot fraudulent charges; however, reviewing your Bank statement each month provides a more accurate source of information.

Bath State Bank reminds customers to check Bank account statements each month. If you are an online user, it’s easy to do this more often. If you utilize our Bank Easy auto phone teller, you have the ability to frequently monitor your accounts too.

Did you know that if you spot a fraudulent charge after a 60-day period that there isn’t much you can do about it? A 60-day rule determines a consumer’s liability for unauthorized transactions. This rule states that if a consumer doesn’t report an unauthorized electronic funds transfer (EFT) or a fraudulent charge to their bank account within 60 days of the statement that first shows the issue, the consumer is liable for any unauthorized transfers that occur after the 60-day period.