A woman has been arrested for fraud after ‘pretending to have terminal cancer’.
Kamilla Morgana is accused of scamming around a dozen victims.
She claimed she had terminal cancer and lupus and allegedly defrauded around £20,880 (BRL 150,000) in one year, according to the authorities.
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She even said she was undergoing chemotherapy to treat her cancer and wore a bandana on her head.
Police spokesperson Igomar de Souza Caetano said she lied to friends and associates to scam cash donations, free services and loans.
Morgana used some of the money to pay for plastic surgeries, he said.
She rented a high-end apartment in Goiânia, Brazil, before her arrest on 30 July.
The police released a photo of the suspect to try to find other possible victims.
Art teacher Gustavo Henrique de Moura Pereira, 27, said he was swindled out of over £6,950 (BRL 50,000) by the suspect.
He said he met her when he was hired to give private art lessons at her home.
He said: “Time went by and I developed a lot of affection for her, so much so that a close friendship began to form.
“I used to swim with her 10-year-old son in the pool, he liked me and I liked him.
“I even met her mother and a sister who, today, I know is a fake sister.
“One day she told me she had been robbed, had lost access to her bank accounts and needed to pay some bills, both for treatment and things for her child.
“Even though the transfer wasn’t in her name, I trusted her completely because I thought she was in a bad way.”
Moura later discovered that another local artist had allegedly been conned by the suspect.
He said: “We got together and learned about a bunch of other victims, many of them.
“Today we are a group of around 10 victims and she used the same tactics on everyone.”
Morgana’s defence lawyers Gilliano Vinícius Freitas Souza and Victor Hugo Lopes said she takes four controlled medications for mental health issues, as reported by Need To Know.
They said in a statement: “It is important to highlight that Ms. Kamilla Morgana suffers from severe psychological problems, such as bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, depression, dissociative disorder, and Stevens-Johnson syndrome.
“She currently uses four controlled medications, which compromises her awareness of her own actions.
“Any conclusion at this point will be merely speculative and hasty, due to the absence of a detailed analysis of the nuances of the case.”
The investigation continues.
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