Catch a sports broadcast in Minnesota, and you’re likely to see fast-cash commercials with a legal twist: You can get hundreds – even, thousands – of dollars in your checking account tomorrow. No collateral needed. And don’t worry about state-imposed loan limits because this deal would come from a Native American-owned business.

Easy money? Not necessarily. Borrowers who bite on these ads can find themselves in murky legal waters where regulators are powerless to help them settle disputes and courts can’t agree on the reach of tribal sovereignty.

Thousands of borrowers have complained to government authorities nationwide about problems with tribal-affiliated loans. They’ve alleged that their bank accounts were tapped for fees as high as three times the original loan amount, their wages were improperly garnished by distant tribal courts and their objections were met by threats of arrests and lawsuits.