By Mryna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
Juab County fairgoers may find that their personal bank accounts are at risk after a security breach was discovered involving ticket sales for the Summit County Fair rodeo and demolition derby.
Juab County has also now discovered that there are fraudulent charges on several credit cards used by residents to purchase demotion derby tickets in Juab.
"Summit County became aware of their breach last Sunday after a number of county employees and members of the community reported experiencing fraudulent charges on their bank accounts," said Julie Booth, Summit County spokesperson.
Jamie Garrett, Juab County Fair and Events Coordinator, said that Juab County became aware that there were also problems with ticket sales to do with the recent county fair demolition derby held during the fair the first full week of August 2014.
Booth said it is believed a third-party vendor offering online sales of tickets to the rodeo and derby was compromised.
"We are encouraging anyone who purchased tickets using the online ticketing system carefully review their credit card statements," said Garrett.
In Summit County a total of 951 transactions were made through the vendor, Booth said, but it is not yet known how many individual customers were affected.
"The largest fraudulent charge that we have heard of was $5,000, and the smallest one we heard of was $75," said Booth."
Roughly half of the Summit County employees who purchased tickets through the vendor have so far been affected by the breach, but it is not clear if that ratio extends to the 951 total transactions, she said.
In Juab County, there are 12 individuals, to date, who have found fraudulent charges on their credit cards.
Juab County's Demolition Derby sold 9,563 tickets and of those, 6,828 were purchased through the EZ Ticket Live website, the same company that served fans in Summit County.
In Juab County, those who purchased tickets for the Derby should contact their credit card company immediately. If there are problems, they should also contact EZ Ticket.
A letter has been written to advise Juab County residents who may have purchased tickets online of the potential problem.
