Japanese Switch 2 hopefuls were hoping today was going to be a smooth ride, with lottery results due to be announced, allowing many to finally put their pre-orders in on the My Nintendo Store.
However, not only has the online store been struggling — at the time of writing, it’s still in maintenance mode — but Nintendo has confirmed that phishing emails are being sent out in an attempt to scam customers, pretending to give people the results of the Switch 2 lottery.
In a statement posted on X (and translated by Cheesemeister on Bluesky), Nintendo Customer Services have warned buyers of the email, and advised that “any pre-order or purchase URL is not sent from our company”.
Official emails from Nintendo are reportedly yet to go out still, and Nintendo says that when they do go out, it “will not contain a URL” which will allow you to purchase. So, if you’re reading this from Japan, please be careful!
One unsuspecting customer, who didn’t even enter the lottery, has received a phishing email to “confirm” that they have been successful in securing a Switch 2 pre-order. As the user says (via machine translation): “Don’t think every single citizen is entering the Switch lottery!!!” They’ve also shared a screenshot of the scam email on social media.
Pre-orders have been a bit of a nightmare both in Japan and North America. Regarding the latter, within minutes of pre-orders opening, listings on eBay appeared from scalpers attempting to cash in on the frenzy.
Let us know if you’re in Japan and struggling with the lottery system in the comments.
