Pokémon card scams on Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji, and how buyers avoid them

The same playbook turns up everywhere, because it follows the money: new sets sell out, secondhand prices jump, and buyers who missed out at retail are in a hurry.

Scam 1: the deposit to hold a box, or a pre-order

How it goes: a booster box, ETB or upcoming set at a good price. The seller replies fast, says several people are asking, and offers to hold it for a deposit by e-transfer. Sometimes it’s a “pre-order” for a set that isn’t out yet, at retail price, from someone who says they have a store contact. The box never appears, and neither does the seller.

It works because sealed product is hard to find in shops, and a buyer who has missed two releases will pay to be sure of the third. Singapore police described exactly this pattern in December 2025: pre-order listings, a deposit by bank transfer, then silence.

The rule: no deposits, ever, for cards or sealed product you haven’t seen. Honest local sellers say “first come, first served” and leave it there. Our guide to deposit scams has replies that sort honest sellers from the rest, and Interac e-Transfer scams covers why an e-transfer is so hard to undo.

Scam 2: counterfeit and resealed sealed product

How it goes: a seller with several identical sealed boxes, priced well under what they sell for, sometimes with stock photos. You meet, the boxes look sealed, you pay. At home, the packs are fake or the good ones are gone.

In the Nanaimo case, the buyer paid $600 in cash and $600 online for boxes and cards he believed were worth far more. The seller still had 13 card listings up, priced from $54 to $1,400, and police laid no charges because they couldn’t prove the seller knew the cards were fake.

The checks are on the wrap and the price: logo-printed shrink wrap on modern English product, one neat seam, crisp crimps on packs, and a price in line with recent sales. All of it is in how to spot a resealed booster box.

Scam 3: fake singles and fake slabs

Chase cards (Charizard, alternate arts, vintage holos) are the most counterfeited, and graded slabs are faked too, sometimes with a real certificate number copied from a genuine card. PSA reported Pokémon counterfeits submitted to it rose more than 125% in 2025. Check singles with the 9 checks for fake Pokémon cards, and for a slab, look up the cert number on the grader’s site and then check that the card, label and case match (graded cards and slabs).

Scam 4: WhatsApp, gift cards, or “I’ll ship it”

Three versions of the same move, each one taking away a protection:

• “Message me on WhatsApp or Telegram, I’ll do a better price.” Off the platform, there’s no record Facebook or Kijiji can act on, and the account can vanish.
• Gift cards, wire transfers, PayPal friends and family, crypto. None of these can be reversed. A seller who asks for one is choosing it for that reason.
• “I’m out of town, I’ll ship it.” A local listing that turns into a shipped deal, paid by e-transfer, has the risks of both and the protections of neither. Meta’s Purchase Protection covers only purchases made through Facebook’s own checkout; local pickups and payments arranged in Messenger are excluded.

Scam 5: the meetup that turns into a robbery

Card meetups have become a target because the goods are small, valuable and easy to resell. In Vancouver, from 23 March 2026, a suspect arranged to buy high-value cards through Marketplace, met sellers in public places, then used bear spray and ran with the cards; police caught him by posing as sellers. In Laval, police counted 11 Pokémon card cases among 30 Marketplace robberies and scams, with young suspects posing as buyers.

Those victims were mostly sellers. As a buyer, you’re the one carrying cash, which makes you the mirror target. The rules:

1. Use a police exchange zone. Vancouver Police have a Safe Exchange Location at 2120 Cambie Street; Laval police have a monitored zone at headquarters on boulevard Chomedey; Peel, Edmonton and several police services in eastern Ontario have them too. Check your local police site.
2. Go in daylight, and bring someone.
3. Keep the cash out of sight until the cards have passed your checks.
4. Leave if the plan changes. A new location at the last minute, a car park instead of a shop, or a second person you weren’t told about.

Scam 6: stolen cards

Card shops in British Columbia and the Greater Toronto Area have reported break-ins, and stolen cards resurface online. A big collection at a fraction of its value, from a seller who can’t say what’s in it or where it came from, is a reason to walk away. If you think a listing is stolen goods, tell local police rather than confronting the seller.

Red-flag phrases in card listings

None of these proves a scam on its own. Each one is a reason to slow down.

Already paid? What to do now

1. Call your bank or credit union now. If the e-transfer hasn’t been deposited, it may still be cancelled. Say it’s fraud, not a dispute.
2. Save the evidence. Screenshot the listing, the profile and the whole chat before the seller deletes them.
3. Report the profile on Facebook, or the ad on Kijiji, so the next buyer is warned.
4. Report the fraud to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre online or at 1-888-495-8501, and to your local police.
5. Ignore recovery offers. Anyone who contacts you offering to get the money back for a fee is the second half of the scam.

How Sift helps before you message

Sift is a free browser extension for Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji. It can’t verify a seller, a card or a box. What it does is read listings for the wording these scams depend on, and put the real price one click away.

• “Check this” flags for pay-first wording (deposit, e-transfer first, gift card, wire, PayPal friends and family) and off-platform contact (WhatsApp, Telegram, “text me at”, phone numbers, emails). On the listing page, Sift reads the full description, where most of this wording lives.
• A too-cheap flag when a listing is priced under half the median of the other listings on the page, with at least eight prices to compare.
• Price links on card listings. The Cards kit opens PriceCharting and TCGplayer first, then eBay sold and Google Lens on the photo, which shows whether the picture was copied from somewhere else.

Each flag is a reason to look closer, never a verdict, and a deposit request that only arrives in Messenger is still yours to spot. More on how the flags work on the scam checker page. Sift runs in Chrome, Edge and Brave on a computer.

Pokémon is a trademark of Nintendo, Creatures, GAME FREAK and The Pokémon Company. Sift is independent and isn’t affiliated with or endorsed by them, or by Facebook or Kijiji.