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.
