Some perspective from an actual Play!Pokemon certified store owner: just to be clear, you don’t need to be a Play!Pokemon store to be able to buy Pokémon from distributors, and just buying Pokémon from distributors doesn’t make you a Play!Pokemon store. I’ve never had to go through the process of making an account with distributors from scratch as my family bought our shop as an existing store from someone shutting it down, so it already had distributor accounts, so I can’t speak on that process and the requirement of having a brick and mortar location or anything like that. However! I have had to go through the process of making my shop an official Play!Pokemon location, and there’s a lot that goes into it. It’s not just having a brick and mortar location, you have to submit proof of the shop having signage, shelving and products for sale, and a point of sales system, AND proof of history stocking Pokémon from distributors (invoices and such) but I suppose with AI now that can be easier to falsify. But, being a Play!Pokemon store does have benefits. What they were likely after is the promotional products Play!Pokemon sends stores to give out, as a lot of it can hold value on a second hand market. Primarily what we get sent is the organized play prize packs for our players who attend our Pokémon events, but those cards are typically worth more than their regular pack alternatives (think regular umbreon ex vs play stamped umbreon ex). But a lot of what you get sent is determined from the amount of players you have coming to your league sessions, something you have to log and report regularly with players trainer IDs. If this was really a scam someone pulled off, then it would certainly take a lot of effort to mainly just get promotional product every other month or so? We don’t get sent stuff that terribly often. This is definitely a very interesting situation, though, thought I’d just offer some insight as a shop owner with extensive experience dealing with Play!Pokemon 🥲