The Pokemon TCG boom has been incredible for the hobby — but where there’s money, there are people looking to take it. A particularly brutal scam has been unfolding in Thailand’s trading card community, and the victims include an 11-year-old boy who lost over 1,000,000 baht — more than $30,500 USD — while trying to purchase a rare Pokemon card that was never delivered.
The case has now been formally reported to Bangkok’s Economic Crime Suppression Division, and the 11-year-old is far from the only victim. At least 25 people have come forward with similar stories, with total losses across all complainants exceeding 5 million baht — roughly $152,000 USD — making this one of the most significant Pokemon TCG fraud cases to surface in recent memory.
Who Is “Mr Mor” and How the Scam Worked
The alleged scammer is known to victims only as “Mr Mor” — a seller who built a reputation within Thailand’s tight-knit trading card community by operating through Facebook and offering to source rare Pokemon cards and other high-value collectibles from overseas. The identity behind the alias has not yet been officially confirmed by Thai authorities, and the Facebook trading page associated with the account has since been shut down.
The approach was calculated and patient. According to victims who reported to authorities, Mr Mor didn’t immediately start taking money and disappearing. He spent months delivering genuine products reliably, earning trust from collectors and building word-of-mouth referrals across the community. A 15-year-old victim known only as “A” told police he had regularly ordered and received cards from the suspect over approximately four months, even turning a consistent 10% profit by reselling what he bought. That track record of reliability was what made the eventual betrayal so damaging.
Once trust was firmly established and buyers were comfortable spending larger sums, the excuses started. Deliveries on expensive orders were delayed, with customs issues, tax problems, and import complications cited as explanations. Then contact stopped entirely, and the Facebook page vanished.
The Victims and What They Lost
The 11-year-old at the center of the initial report transferred over 1 million baht in a single transaction to purchase what he understood to be a rare Pokemon card — an extraordinary sum for anyone, let alone a child. The card never arrived, and attempts to reach the seller went nowhere.
Other victims tell similarly painful stories. A 22-year-old collector reported losing more than 100,000 baht after successfully completing multiple transactions with the seller that had previously been profitable. He told police he had no reason to be suspicious given the history of legitimate deals. A 23-year-old described losing around 640,000 baht after a run of successful trades created a false sense of security.
One particularly sharp detail from the reporting: one victim was allegedly offered a rare Umbreon “Split Earth” card — normally valued at around 500,000 baht on the market — at the below-market price of 410,000 baht. A suspiciously good deal was part of the lure used to pull buyers into bigger commitments before the exit. The victims, accompanied by consumer advocate Tankhun Jitt-itsara, filed their complaint with the Central Investigation Bureau’s Economic Crime Suppression Division. The case is now with authorities, though Mr Mor has yet to be formally identified.
Why Thailand’s Card Market Made This Possible
Thailand’s trading card scene has grown substantially in recent years, with events like the Extreme Card Fest Thailand — held at Chamchuri Square in Bangkok as recently as June 2026 — drawing large crowds of collectors dealing in Pokemon, One Piece, sports cards, and other TCG products. Certain rare and limited-edition cards in Thailand now command prices in the hundreds of thousands or even millions of baht, creating a high-value secondary market that’s ripe for exploitation.
The trust networks in tight collector communities are exactly what scammers like Mr Mor exploit. When someone has a reputation as a reliable source, new buyers enter with pre-built confidence. Word-of-mouth referrals across Discord groups, Facebook communities, and card events mean a bad actor can reach a lot of people quickly by performing well at the start — then cashing out on the credibility they’ve spent months building.
Trading card event organizer Chatchanapong Kaewthong, speaking in the wake of the case, urged collectors to verify sellers thoroughly before committing to large transactions — advice that’s easy to give but genuinely difficult to act on when a seller has already established a track record that looks legitimate from every angle.
This Is Part of a Bigger Problem in Pokemon TCG Right Now
The Thailand case isn’t an isolated incident — it’s part of a pattern of Pokemon TCG fraud that has escalated alongside the card game’s explosive growth in value. In July 2026, a separate case saw a man arrested for allegedly using fake cryptocurrency to steal a Pokemon card worth more than $24,000. Earlier in 2026, three suspects were arrested in connection with an alleged $320,000 Pokemon card scam in which bags filled with paper were substituted for cash during an in-person deal.
Beyond outright fraud, the Pokemon TCG market has also been hammered by scalpers who buy out new releases the moment they hit shelves and relist them at massive markups. Sets like Ascended Heroes have been particularly targeted, with multiple cards in that set — including the Special Illustration Rare versions of Mega Gengar ex and Pikachu ex — selling for over $1,000 each on the secondary market. When individual cards reach those values, the incentive to scam grows proportionally.
Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have acknowledged the scalping problem specifically, making statements ahead of major launches about efforts to implement measures that would help keep sets accessible to genuine fans rather than resellers. How effective those measures have been is debatable, but the problem is clearly on the radar at the highest levels of the franchise.
How to Protect Yourself When Buying Pokemon Cards Online
The Mr Mor case is a textbook example of a long-con trust scam, and it’s worth understanding the mechanics so you don’t become a victim of something similar. A few key things to keep in mind when dealing with private Pokemon card sellers online:
- A track record of small successful deals does not guarantee safety on large ones. Scammers deliberately build trust through small transactions precisely to set up bigger exits. The size of the amount you’re about to transfer should always reset your caution level regardless of past dealings.
- Below-market pricing on high-value cards is a red flag, not a reward. If someone is offering you an Umbreon card worth 500,000 baht for 410,000 baht, the question isn’t “why am I so lucky” — it’s “why are they losing 90,000 baht on this deal?”
- Use established platforms with buyer protections where possible. Facebook trading groups offer no formal recourse if a deal goes wrong. Legitimate TCG marketplaces with dispute resolution and seller verification exist for exactly this reason.
- Never transfer large sums for high-value cards without escrow or in-person verification. For transactions in the tens of thousands of dollars range, insisting on meeting in person or using a trusted third-party escrow service is not paranoia — it’s basic financial sense.
- Customs and tax delay excuses are a classic exit strategy. If a seller who previously delivered reliably suddenly starts citing import problems on an expensive order, consider that a serious warning sign rather than a routine complication.
What’s Coming for the Pokemon TCG in the Rest of 2026
Despite the fraud problem, the Pokemon TCG itself is in a genuinely exciting period heading into the back half of 2026. The 30th Celebration set launches worldwide on September 16, 2026 — notably the first Pokemon TCG release to drop globally on the same day — and brings reprints of some of the most iconic cards in the game’s history, each stamped with a special 30th anniversary mark. The set includes over 150 cards, a 30-card classic reprint collection, and 30 uniquely illustrated Pikachu cards by different artists, alongside a brand-new “Futuristic Rare” rarity featuring artwork from renowned Japanese artist YOSHIROTTEN.
Following that, the year closes out with Delta Reign on November 6, 2026 — the sixth and final main expansion of the current Mega Evolution era. Mega Rayquaza ex headlines the set, a Pokemon that last had a full set built around it back in 2015’s Roaring Skies. The set also introduces Mega Golisopod ex, Mega Golurk ex, and Mega Malamar ex, all of which originate from Pokemon Legends: Z-A. Based on Japanese market prices from its counterpart set Storm Emeralda, the gold Mega Rayquaza ex Mega Ultra Rare is already shaping up as one of the most anticipated pulls of the year, with collectors expecting it to command significant value on the secondary market.
It’s a strong lineup of releases to end the year on — which also means the conditions that enable scammers are only going to intensify. The higher the card values, the higher the stakes for buyers acting on trust without proper protections in place. The Thailand case is a sharp reminder that no track record of past deals is a substitute for proper safeguards when the numbers get big.
For more gaming news, check out our coverage of the Twitch and Amazon class action lawsuit over AI training, or see what’s happening with the Epic Games Store’s battle against Steam.
