The media must be cautious in reporting on huge sums of money being donated without knowing the background of the donor, said Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (Fomca) advisor Prof Mohd Hamdan Adnan today.

He said the media should take heed of the maxim "when in doubt, leave it out" in dealing with such a situation.

"We don't want the media to oversensationalise a story on a person announcing a huge donation and later find people here and there complaining of having been cheated by that person," he told Bernama.

Hamdan, who is also a Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) commissioner and a journalism lecturer at a local university, said he hoped that the saga of Lebanese businessman Elie Yousef Najem would not recur.

Don't make him a hero

Yesterday, Deputy Inspector-General of Police Musa Hassan also advised the media to stop sensationalising the "exploits" of Elie which he said could lead the public to perceive him as a hero.

Elie, 45, made headlines when he announced last Saturday that he would donate US$275 million (RM1.03 billion) to the National Cancer Council (Makna) to build a cancer treatment and research hospital in Kuala Lumpur.

The news attracted incredulous reaction from the public but some people also came forward to complain that they had been cheated by the Lebanese.

The self-proclaimed tycoon said he was worth US$46 billion and that he was suffering from malignant brain tumor.

The police have launched an investigation and speculation is rife that Elie, who has been reported to have overstayed his Malaysian visa, could be arrested soon.