Right-wing outlets Newsmax and Townhall have sent a scammy email advertisement from gold company Monetary Gold which falsely claims that federal law allows banks to seize people’s accounts and “use those funds when necessary to keep itself, the bank, afloat.” 

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has called on Newsmax to stop pushing the false advertisement, as CNN reported today. Media Matters found the Townhall ad today after the FDIC’s statement. 

On March 19, the FDIC demanded that Monetary Gold “immediately stop and correct its misleading advertising that falsely claims consumers' FDIC-insured deposits are at risk of forfeiture” and also called “upon Newsmax.com to stop publishing these misleading ads and to issue a correction to its readers.” CNN reported that Newsmax CEO Christopher “Ruddy said Newsmax would 'take appropriate steps' and that in the meantime the advertiser had been suspended while the review takes place.” Media Matters found that Newsmax has been frequently sending a version of that email this year, according to a search of an account that receives right-wing emails. 

The conservative outlet Townhall sent that ad to its readers on March 17 (that email can be found here). Townhall also repeatedly sent a version of that email last year (here’s an example from December 2019). Townhall has frequently sent suspect emails to its followers over the years. The outlet is part of Townhall Media, which is owned by Salem Media group and includes conservative websites Bearing Arms, Hot Air, PJ Media, RedState, and Twitchy. Bearing Arms also sent a version of the Monetary Gold email last year. 

Newsmax routinely tries to profit from scams, including pushing dangerous medical lies during the coronavirus pandemic.