A class-action lawsuit filed in California accuses Cash4Gold of “a massive scheme to defraud tens of thousands of consumers.” On its website, Cash4Gold offers to pay fair value for gold jewelry. According to the lawsuit, the company repeatedly “loses” jewelry and claims not to have received it, and often melts jewelry items before the full 12-day return period has ended.

Law firm Balestriere Lanza PLLC filed the lawsuit on October 6 at the U.S. District for Central California against Green Bullion Services LLC, doing business as Cash4Gold. It further claims that Cash4Gold makes it impossible for customers dissatisfied with Cash4Gold’s appraisal of their jewelry to reject the offer and have their jewelry returned to them.

The class action “is the result of an extensive investigation,” said Balestriere Lanza, adding that checks for received jewelry were “systematically mailed too late for customers to request return of their jewelry within the return policy period.”

“The Complaint alleges that Cash4Gold knowingly and deliberately pockets the rewards from jewelry they either claim to never have received or severely undervalue, unjustly inflating its bottom line, and defrauding hundreds of thousands of customers dispersed across the nation,” the law firm states.

Cash4Gold describes itself as “a mail-in refiner, not a jeweler, a pawn shop or a collateral lender.” It states on its website that it has completed over 900,000 transactions to date.

The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages.