By our reporter 24.8.2026
A 38-year-old Brazilian woman has been sentenced to prison after being arrested by the police and arraigned for “emotional kidnap” of a couple.
According to the police Amanda Maria Souza de Oliveira disguised herself as 12-year-old girl and the kindhearted couple took her in and cared for her as their daughter. She pretended to have the mentally of a child by drinking milk from bottles and sucking on dummies.
She kept going with her deception for 14 months till relatives of the couple dug out a report of how she had similarly scammed a couple in Rio de Janeiro. The police were called in and when they accosted Oliveira; she owned up to the fraud and immediately changed her tone to normal adult voice.
She admitted that she has been deceiving couples with similar antics for the past 15 years across Brazil.
‘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 pretended to be 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.
In court her claim of mental illness was rejected by the judge as prosecution maintained that she has caused financial and psychological trauma to the couple who fell victim to her crime. She was handed a 14-month jail sentence.