A 38-year-old Brazilian woman named Amanda Maria Souza de Oliveira has been sentenced to a year and a half in prison for fraud after living with a couple while claiming to be a 12-year-old girl. Court records indicate she convinced the pair to care for her over 14 months by presenting herself as a child who needed protection. She reportedly told them she had the mental age of a young girl and behaved in ways that matched that claim.
According to the Daily Mail, Oliveira first appeared at an evangelical church in Joinville in southern Brazil, where she introduced herself as an 18-year-old named Gabriele looking for work. The pastor apparently introduced her to a couple who invited her to stay with them. Over time, she changed her story and said she was actually 12 years old. She claimed she had fled abuse in the northern state of Para and that her father had forced her to take hormonal supplements, which made her look much older.
The couple accepted her account and treated her as their daughter. She reportedly told them she was severely autistic and began using baby bottles and pacifiers. She is also said to have persuaded them to pay for weight-loss drugs. A relative of the couple eventually grew suspicious of her age and reportedly searched online for similar cases.
Court records detailed a pattern of similar claims across nine Brazilian states
The relative is said to have found reports from 2023 about a woman named Amanda who had carried out a comparable deception in Rio de Janeiro. When police entered Oliveira’s bedroom, she apparently immediately stopped the childlike behavior and spoke in a normal adult voice. She reportedly later admitted the deception to investigators and stated that she had used the same approach for at least 15 years in several Brazilian states.
“It is clear that I deceived people; I lied. But I did not intend to scam anyone,” she told police. Court records show she had presented herself as a child in nine different places: Parana, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Goias, Ceara, Rio Grande do Sul, Sao Paulo, Rio Grande do Norte, and Mato Grosso do Sul.
A judge in Santa Catarina rejected her defense that she was mentally ill and therefore not responsible for her actions. The judge concluded that she had acted deliberately and consciously. This is not the first time Brazil has made headlines for bizarre reasons, as midnight alien attack alerts were sent across the country recently.
Oliveira’s lawyers said they would appeal the decision. They argued in court that she had adopted what they called a survival strategy as a deeply troubled woman and that she had only been seeking the love and affection she lacked as a child.
Prosecutors maintained that a prison sentence was appropriate because of the financial and psychological harm the family had suffered. Oliveira had reportedly lived with the couple for more than a year while maintaining the false identity and relying on their support. False identity schemes can carry severe legal penalties, as a former FIFA hopeful is facing court charges for allegedly deceiving a minor.
Published: Aug 24, 2026 09:50 am