Sinister scam rocks popular rodeo: ‘You gotta be sharp’

A scamming campaign has hit a well-known annual rodeo in California, and the organizers are warning vendors and others to not fall for it.

Organizers of the Clovis Rodeo flagged to the public Tuesday about fraudulent activity circulating online and through direct messages.

The Clovis Rodeo Association shared what seems to be an AI-generated poster inviting food vendors to participate in the event being held April 22 to 26. The poster said it was seeking sellers of global street food, gourmet artisan food, and specialty drinks. The price to vend: $155 a night.

But none of that is true.

Scammers shared false posters to get vendors to cough up money.

“Please be advised: This is NOT legitimate,” the association wrote.

The rodeo isn’t currently soliciting food truck vendors, and all food vendors are nonprofits directly coordinated with the association’s team, the association said.

Alejandro Espinoza, owner of Mexican restaurant Garrafa, was one of the scammer’s targets, he told KSEE24. He got an email titled “Official invitation: food partnership!” from [email protected] promising a prime spot at the rodeo.

“I saw that email, like I said, my first thought was, ‘Man, it’s a good opportunity for us!’” Espinoza said.

However, when the scammer asked for payments, it felt off for Espinoza. The email requested payments be done through Zelle, CashApp, PayPal or Chime.

““When they sent the payment — the type of payment they wanted, I was like, ‘Nah, this is not normal,’” Espinoza added.

The Clovis Rodeo is held every April.

People need to be smarter about spotting and avoiding scams, such as when they ask for suspicious payment methods, rodeo association president Danny Swenson told KSEE24, especially in the age of artificial intelligence.

“You gotta be sharp enough and just kind of divert it, and always don’t give out any personal information,” he said.

The scam hasn’t been limited to just food vendors, according to Swenson. Tickets have been bought up and resold at higher prices, and he said people should only buy tickets from the official rodeo website.

Similarly, people should refer to the website only for accurate information, the association said, and may contact the organizers directly.