Art in the Park warns of scam

Art in the Park is arguably Boulder City’s biggest event of the year. And with any event of its size comes an opportunity for unscrupulous behavior.

The Boulder City Hospital Foundation, which runs the event, last week announced on social media for vendors and artists to be wary if contacted regarding discounted entry fees.

Their message stated, “We have been made aware that someone is contacting potential Art in the Park food vendors and fraudulently collecting vendor fees. These messages are NOT coming from Art in the Park. Please do not send payment through Venmo, PayPal, Zelle, or any other payment method in response to an unsolicited email claiming to register you as a vendor.”

BCHF President Leslie Woodbury added that Art in the Park vendor registration and communication does not come from a Gmail address and since they are a non-profit organization, all email addresses end in .org and any communication from organizers is done through Constant Contact.

“We found out on Aug. 20 that someone has been trying to fraudulently sign up food vendors for Art in the Park via email solicitation,” Woodbury told the Review. “We aren’t aware of anyone who actually paid or signed up through the fraudulent account this year. We’re hopeful we caught it early.”

Art in the Park, which will be held Oct. 3-4, draws an estimated 80,000 people to Boulder City and is now in its 62nd year. It also draws hundreds of artists and other types of vendors.

“We had one artist pay the fraudulent account last year,” she said. “We honored their payment and gave them a booth. We had a food vendor reach out this year. She was about to sign up and pay through Venmo, but her son encouraged her to reach out to us first because he thought it looked fishy. The fraud site sells food vendor booths much cheaper than their actual price. So far, we haven’t heard of anyone else falling for the scam, or even receiving the email. We reported it to the police both years.”

She added that any past vendors who hadn’t yet signed up for this year were emailed directly by them to warn them about the fraud attempt.

“I want people to know we are on top of it, and that the news and posts are to keep it from becoming a problem,” Woodbury said.

Those with questions or concerns are encouraged to contact Woodbury at lwoodbury@bchnv.org.