Man arrested after using $10k in counterfeit cash to buy Pokemon cards

The Pokemon TCG craze has been going strong for years, and it doesn’t show any sign of stopping. One man living in Vancouver has been arrested with over $10k in counterfeit cash he was using to trick vendors on Facebook marketplace and buy more cards.

People committing crimes to get their hands on Pokemon cards isn’t anything new. It’s been a pretty common trend in the past few years, which would be surprising if it wasn’t for how much cards cost these days.

Scalpers who, at times, don’t even know much about Pokemon will camp out at stores in an effort to get their hands on cards early and resell them. It has drastically driven up the cost of buying cards for everyone.

However, one man living in Vancouver, Canada, tried to get around this by counterfeiting cash to buy scalped cards off of Facebook marketplace before getting caught by police.

Man caught counterfeiting cash to buy Pokemon cards

While a normal store would likely catch on to someone trying to rip them off with fake money pretty fast, someone on Facebook marketplace or other person-to-person online vendors has a much lower chance of figuring it out.

A man, who went by the username “Lovedeep Dhillon” on the platform, purchased $1500 worth of Pokemon cards from someone who later realized they were given fake cash.

The police statement claims she realized the money was fake due to it having an “odd texture, duplicate serial numbers, and removable holographic security features.” In other word, his counterfeit cash wasn’t very convincing.

But, despite knowingly selling this woman fake cash, the perpetrator set up another purchase worth $2700. The woman, knowing she had been ripped off, set up a string operation with police to apprehend him.

Pokemon

“The same man later tried to buy another $2,700 worth of Pokemon cards after the first transaction, and the seller agreed to do the second transaction with the police ready to arrest the suspect. One man was arrested and $10,200 in counterfeit currency was recovered. Police suspect there are other victims linked to this seller,” a statement from Victoria Police Department reads.

Police suspect that he used this username, and potentially even more counterfeit cash, to buy Pokemon cards and other goods like electronics off of Facebook marketplace.

Authorities are actively investigating Lovedeep Dhillon’s other transactions to see just how much he may have stolen.

This isn’t the crime related to Pokemon cards that’s happened in Canada as of late. In March, a brawl broke out in a Costco parking lot between scalpers trying to get at a restock of cards.