(VIDEO) Brazilian Woman Convicted of Fraud After Posing as 12-Year-Old to Live With Foster Family for Months

JOINVILLE, Brazil — A Brazilian court has convicted a 37-year-old woman of fraud after prosecutors said she spent 14 months posing as an abused 12-year-old girl to be taken in by a family in southern Brazil, a case that authorities say was part of a pattern of similar deceptions dating back more than a decade.

Amanda Maria Souza de Oliveira was convicted Thursday of fraud and using a false identity by the Court of Justice of Santa Catarina. She was sentenced to roughly one year, six months and 10 days in prison, followed by an additional period of detention under a semi-open regime, according to a release from the court cited by Fox News.

According to court records, Oliveira approached an organization that assists vulnerable children in 2023, presenting herself as a 12-year-old named Gabriele who had fled an abusive household and was suffering from health problems. She was ultimately placed with a couple in Joinville, who took her in and treated her as their daughter for the following 14 months, according to the court, paying for her housing, food, medication and other needs.

Investigators said Oliveira maintained the deception using a high-pitched, childlike voice, along with props including toys, a pacifier and baby bottles. She also told the family she had autism and claimed her adult physical appearance was the result of hormones she said had been forcibly administered to her during childhood, according to reporting from the New Zealand Herald and the Washington Post.

The scheme began to unravel after a relative of the family grew suspicious of her age, and online research eventually surfaced an earlier report describing a similar case involving a woman using the name Amanda in Rio de Janeiro, according to The Mary Sue. Police arrested Oliveira at the family’s home on June 2, and her composure reportedly broke as officers entered her bedroom, with local police chief Rodrigo Gusso telling her, “The charade is over,” after which she dropped the childlike voice she had maintained for more than a year.

Oliveira gave her real name and date of birth to investigators after her arrest and said lying had become her way of life, according to the Washington Post’s reporting. She told police she had been adopted as an infant by a security guard and a nurse in Ceara, one of Brazil’s poorest states, and that she had suffered emotional neglect growing up, dropping out of school at age 12. Police said her statement to them was “extremely coherent.”

Through her attorney, Lucio Sousa, Oliveira acknowledged fabricating her identity but disputed that her conduct met the legal definition of fraud. “She admits that she invented an identity,” Sousa said ahead of the verdict, according to the Washington Post. “It was the way she found to survive. But she has been a vulnerable person for more than 20 years. She has lived on the streets, and there has been no allegation that she obtained any financial advantage, or committed robbery or theft, which, in theory, means the elements of fraud have not been established.”

Oliveira herself told police she never intended to defraud anyone. “Of course, I deceived people, I lied,” she said, according to police accounts cited by Fox News. “But I didn’t intend to scam anyone.” A separate attorney representing her, Sarita de Paiva, told reporters that Oliveira had described seeking the attention, affection and protection she felt she had missed during her own childhood, and that she believed revealing her true age would have meant losing the care she was receiving.

Authorities said the Joinville case was not an isolated incident. A social worker in Belo Horizonte said Oliveira stayed with her in 2017 under the name Karolina while presenting herself as a vulnerable teenager, describing her as having “the posture and behaviour of a teenager” at the time. A nutritionist in Rio de Janeiro said Oliveira used the name Duda in 2023 while claiming to be an autistic teenage abuse survivor, alleging that Oliveira had researched how autistic individuals behave in order to construct a convincing persona. A psychologist in Recife separately described encountering Oliveira in 2023 carrying a teddy bear and speaking in a childlike voice while claiming to have suffered sexual abuse, saying it was clear a performance was taking place. Authorities also said Oliveira had used at least two other identities in previous years, including one case in Jundiai, Sao Paulo, in 2022, in which she allegedly claimed to have escaped a situation involving sexual exploitation.

Oliveira’s legal team has announced plans to appeal the conviction to higher courts, according to Fox News. She remains in custody, and separate fraud allegations tied to her conduct in Brazil’s Parana state remain under investigation, according to earlier reporting from the New Zealand Herald.