The Florida attorney general’s office recently announced it’s investigating Cash4Gold, the mail-in gold service based in Pompano Beach that made headlines last year when it aired an ad during the Super Bowl.

“There is a pattern of complaints from consumers who allege that they are not paid nearly enough for the gold they send to Cash4Gold,” said a notice on the attorney general’s Web site. “[S]ome checks are as small as 7 cents. Consumers also state that they have contacted the company within the 10- to 12-day period and were not satisfied with their checks and wanted their gold returned, only to be told it was already melted. Others allege that when they send the check back to the company for the return of their gold, the gold never arrives back. Numerous complaints allege that the company says they never received the gold or that the envelope was empty when it arrived.”

The site notes it is launching a civil, not criminal, investigation.

The complaints about empty envelopes and gold melted during the waiting period are also the basis of a class-action lawsuit against the company, which has denied those charges.