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MINNEAPOLIS, May 8 (UPI) -- The rising value of metallic and another precious metals creates a greater possibleness for fraud, polity in Minnesota say.

Several fraudulent strike assets firms hit popped up in the Minneapolis-area, misrepresenting strike values, selling imitation coins and persuading the old to verify out reverse-mortgages on their homes to pay for coins at excessive prices, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reportable Saturday.

The newspaper said there are most 30 Minnesota firms marketing coins to most a half meg earnest collectors and investors in a multibillion-dollar business nationwide. The Minnesota attorney general's office is investigating a half dozen companies for doable fraud.

"This business is somewhat same the Wild West," spokesman Ben Wogsland told the Star Tribune.

Investors turn to metallic -- now over $1,500 an ounce -- silver, platinum and another precious metals as a protection against inflation. The priceless metals are oversubscribed and traded in some forms with exerciser and uncirculated bullion coins being the most profitable for consumers. Many strike buyers are old people, whom cheat artists see as easy targets for fraud, the newspaper said.

Few lawyers will verify on these cases as humbug is difficult to prove, even though the difficulty is on the rise; 19 complaints hit been prefabricated to the Federal Trade Commission in the time year while fivesome complaints had been average in previous years.

Experts feature the difficulty is worsened than statistics show because some grouping who are swindled never contact polity because they are embarrassed or demand substantiation of their losses.

"What I'm finding is that Minnesota is becoming the poster child for this rare-coin business fraud," says Roseville, Minn., police Detective Marc Schultz.

Edina moneyman Gary Adkins, who is the dweller Numismatic Association's Coin Dealer of the Year, says most firms are on the up-and-up but acknowledges there are problems in the industry.