scaremonger
The National Blood Authority described reports of blood shortages as scaremongering.
Eurosceptics said the two memos amounted to scaremongering.
She wrote to a newspaper accusing him of scaremongering about a hospital.
There is a lot of scaremongering going on, people are very frightened, but they are also very angry.
It is misleading and scaremongering to say that inheritance tax affects almost half of the country.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Gossip and rumour
a little bird told meidiom
anecdotal
bird
bush telegraph
dig for dirt
dirt
ear
exposure
gossip
hear (something) through/on the grapevineidiom
hearsay
lip
on everyone's lipsidiom
peddle
rumoured
say-so
scandal
snippety
swirl
your ears must be burningidiom

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Frightening and scaring