A cancer faker conned loved ones and well-wishers out of tens of thousands of dollars – then splurged the cash on plastic surgery, cops say.
Kamilla Morgana, 29, was arrested July 30 in the Brazilian city of Aparecida de Goiânia and declined to answer any questions until her trial.
The Goias Civil Police found that Morgana used at least $26,000 to pay for cosmetic procedures and to pay for the rental of a condominium in a high-end residential neighborhood.
A message recovered by the police showed how the single mother-of-one targeted her victims.
“I need to do the procedure as soon as possible. My father got a good part of the 48,000 reals (approximately $8,600), the problem is that we are already waiting for reimbursement from the plan,” she wrote via WhatsApp. “We spent almost 500,000 reals (around $89,000) on the last hospitalization and there are still more than 20 days until reimbursement.”
Kamilla Morgana was arrested on July 30 in Aparecida de Goiânia on allegations she scammed friends, relatives and strangers out of money after lying that she had terminal cancer and lupus. Police said she conned the victims out of at least $26,700 in one year
Kamilla Morgana’s lawyers said in statement that she suffers from mental illnesses and is taking medication that ‘compromises her awareness of her own actions’
Kamilla Morgana used her social media platform to swindle her friends, family members and strangers out of money to cover her fake cancer treatment. The money was used instead to cover rental payments and cosmetic procedures
Morgana used her social media networks to seek help from friends, relatives and strangers.
One photo showed her lying on a hospital bed with a Portuguese caption that read: ‘The desire to give up is great, but my faith is greater. I will be strong, I will be brave, as long as I breathe. Ps: I love you very much, dad!’
Another picture showed Morgana lying her head over a pillow with the same caption.
Morgana conned art teacher Gustavo Moura into giving her $9,400 for her treatment, according to TV Anhanguera.
He said he provided free art lessons to Morgana, who seemed to appear sick.
‘When I was going to teach her to draw, she would tremble and pretend to be weak,’ Moura recalled. ‘Because I had this contact with her and her family, I didn’t think I would do anything bad.’
In the process, Moura lost the money he had been saving to purchase his first home.
When pressed about showing proof that she was receiving treatment, Morgana snapped at Moura and texted him, ‘I’m not going to do that. I’m not a criminal.’
Moura reached out on multiple occasions asking to be paid back.
‘When are you going to pay me, Kamilla? How long are you going to keep hurting me and all these people? How long?’ he wrote in an unanswered WhatsApp message on March 24, 2023.
‘How can you live knowing that you have harmed the lives of so many people?’ he added. ‘So many hard-working and honest people?’
In a message date July 12, 2023, Moura asked Morgana: ‘Are you really not going to pay, Kamilla? How long is this going to last, man?’
Art teacher Gustavo Moura (pictured) claims that he was conned by Kamilla Morgana to give her around $9,400 to cover the payment of cancer treatment
Brazilian mother-of-one Kamilla Morgana pretended to have cancer and lupus and took to social media, where she conned her followers, including friends, to donate money
Goias Civil Police chief Igomar de Souza said that Morgana wore a bandana on her head to pretend that she was stricken with cancer.
De Souza said she conned her own family as well as close friends. Her daughter’s school had a fundraiser and wired the money to a bank account.
‘There are several victims with different amounts of money. She scammed service providers, teachers and schools, everything she could get her hands on,’ de Souza said. ‘He paid off a loan on a credit card and didn’t pay it back. The scams were against friends, family and people close to her, she had no problem with that.’
In a statement to UOL news outlet, Morgana’s attorneys alleged that she suffers from mental illnesses that impaired her ability to make decisions.
‘It is important to highlight that Ms. Kamilla Morgana suffers from severe psychological problems, such as Bipolar Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Depression, Dissociative Behavior and Steven Johnson Syndrome,’ Gilliano Souza and Victor Lopes said.
‘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.’
