Khaled Auram, the father of Moroccan child Rayan, who died after being trapped in a deep well for five days, warned against fraudsters on social media who exploited the incident by opening pages in his name. In a video shared by activists, Khaled Auram stated, "They opened pages in my name on Facebook to take money from people, they exploited me while my son was underground.” He added, "A fraudster can never have a conscience, and online fraud, in particular, represents a dark world."
He acknowledged the significant support and solidarity his family received from the Arab world, emphasizing that it warmed the hearts of him and his wife, Waseema, who had not slept since their son fell into the well. The rescue operation for Rayan, aged five, who was trapped midway in a well that was 30 meters deep and only 30 centimeters wide, in the vicinity of Chefchaouen in northern Morocco, captured global attention.
The incident saw immense sympathy from around the world, with Twitter users sharing pictures of the child, accompanied by posts in different languages, and numerous hashtags being created. Rayan spent nearly 100 hours in the narrow hole of the well, suffering from a head injury due to a fall onto the rocks, and medical examinations conducted by the rescue team indicated that he had fractures in his neck and spine.
Millions in Morocco and the Arab world awaited a happy ending to the child's ordeal, which elicited widespread international sympathy, but fate had it that he took his last breath alone shortly before the rescue teams reached him.
