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Abstract
These are tough and challenging financial times. In the commodities band of the financial spectrum, the Internet is thick with offers to trade in forex and precious metals. Spot gold sold for more than $1,921 an ounce on September 6, 2011. Similar conditions in the mid-1970s provided fertile ground for a pestilence of commodity-theme scams, a white collar crime wave that led in part to the creation of NASAA 's Model State Commodity Code (Code) in 1985. It provided clear authority and effective, powerful enforcement tools state securities agencies could use to shut down the deferred delivery contract scams, illegal leverage operations and the like within days of finding them. In 2010, in the Dodd-Frank Act, Congress addressed the Zelener precious metals problem identified by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in 2009 testimony and more by enacting Commodity Exchange Act amendments in Dodd-Frank Section 742.