CRESWELL – Buyers beware. Creswell’s newest Fourth of July attraction requires a ticket – a real one. The Hell on Hooves Rodeo is a sold-out event, but that isn’t stopping people from trying to get a ticket.
Lane County Sheriff’s Office Creswell Sergeant Alex Speldrich said that people attempting to buy tickets to the event through online platforms like Facebook have been scammed by resellers. The rodeo sold an estimated 1,800 tickets.
“We haven’t had anybody contact the sheriff’s office directly to report this, but I wanted to make sure that we got some information out there,” Speldrich said.
Creswell City Hall received a call Tuesday morning from a citizen stating that someone was trying to sell them a ticket online but wouldn’t meet in person and instead wanted to be paid over the phone.
Speldrich suggested people “use extra caution, especially when someone’s trying to get you to use online applications to make payments, like Venmo or Cash App,” he said.
“I would encourage anybody, if they get scammed, to report it to the sheriff’s office, and we can assess and follow up to try to hold people accountable who are committing the crime,” Speldrich said. “It’s really hard to pursue if we don’t have people come forward to us,” he added.
Speldrich said the more information that can be provided, the better. Evidence like screenshots of the scammer’s account, profile information, the amount of money that was swindled, and what the correspondence looked like – texting or calling – is all information the Lane County Sheriff’s Office wants when taking the report.
“If it’s too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true,” Speldrich said.
Hell on Hooves Rodeo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
