Japanese police & Nintendo bust massive counterfeit Pokemon card operation

Japanese police and Nintendo teamed up to stop a huge fake Pokemon card scam that could have cost collectors thousands of dollars.

Pokemon cards have become extremely lucrative with fans of the series trying to collect em all and with such demand often comes mischievousness.

As reported by PokeBeach, in 2022, a suspect by the name of Reo Otake had sold four fake Pokemon cards to customers for a whopping $1,250.

Once one of the customers realized that the cards could be fake, the police were contacted and Nintendo was brought on board to take part in the investigation.

Police seize thousands of fake Pokemon cards after raid on house

Nintendo was able to confirm the cards were counterfeit leading to Annaka City Police conducting a search of 21-year-old Otake’s house.

Once inside, they found over one thousand cards suspected of being counterfeit, 400 of which were printed in English and Japanese. The cards included rainbow Charizards from Sun and Moon’s Burning Shadows expansion as well as cards from the original 151 set.

Otake had apparently been selling the cards on an auction website and was arrested, however, police still don’t know where he got the cards to begin with. As such, the investigation is ongoing.

This is just the latest in a long list of Pokemon card-related crimes with alleged card thieves getting involved in high-speed car chases to even deadly shootings with police.