by Doc – Owner, Founder, Sad to See His Favorite Villager Being Used in a Scam
I periodically check out the Amazon amiibo card listings to see if there’s anything new or interesting that I may want to purchase – even though I’ve got plenty of amiibo chips that I’ve made myself, I still like to have decorative cards and such.
Well, I did find something new, and I’m not happy about it. Check out this listing.
Notice anything off about it? Well, it’s an affiliate link, so we get a cut from sales made using that link. Thanks for the help. But if you’re smart, you won’t buy that item. You know why?
It’s a scam. Sure, you’ll get an Ankha amiibo card – the item pictured is what will be delivered. That’s not what the scam is. The scam is that it’s a misleading listing. Take a closer look at the title. I see two things:
- Intentional misspelling of “Animal Crossing”, to avoid copyright issues – because this card isn’t an official Animal Crossing amiibo card
- The words “Third Party” confirm that.
This is a card that’s designed to look like an official Ankha Animal Crossing amiibo card, but it isn’t. It’s very clever too – it’s priced about the same as the real amiibo card (remember that most of what you’ll find on Google isn’t the official card, so try to filter out the Etsy links and such).
This is a person who’s making unofficial Animal Crossing amiibo cards and trying to pass it off as the real thing without technically breaking Amazon’s Terms of Service – that’s why it’s called “Animl Crossing” and “Third Party”. They can claim full disclosure, but it’s actually misleading.
We know that this is intentional because I found other listings from them in a similar fashion. Here’s a Lucky amiibo card:
In this case, they omitted “Animl Crossing” entirely, but kept the Nintendo pricing. When I checked the listing information, I found all the classic examples of “Amazon SEO” – they made sure to mention all the keywords associated with Animal Crossing without actually saying “Animal Crossing”.
Be careful out there when buying official amiibo cards, and always double-check that you’re buying what you think you’re buying.
Amiibo Doctor 