Steve Burton is at the center of an artificial intelligence scam that conned a woman out of thousands of dollars.
Southern California native Abigail Ruvalcaba believed she and Burton had formed a romantic online connection after meeting via Facebook over a year ago. However, videos Burton allegedly sent to her turned out to be deepfake clips created using AI by a scammer.
“To me, it looks real, even now,” Ruvalcaba told local Los Angeles news outlet KTLA in an interview published on Wednesday, August 27. “I don’t know anything about AI.”
Through the fake Burton videos, the scammer convinced Ruvalcaba to send them more than $81,000, claiming they would reimburse her. “And then checks and Zelle and Bitcoin, it was everything,” she stated.
Can you tell which of these videos is fake?A South L.A. family is sharing their story after a mother was conned out of her life savings by a scammer posing as a “General Hospital” star. https://t.co/Kbci0ATUBM pic.twitter.com/l8ZTnIVRoL — ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) August 29, 2025
In addition to her life savings, Ruvalcaba also sold her family’s condo for $350,000, money which she sent to the scammer. “I remember you had suggested to sell this place. I said no. Now I don’t care,” Ruvalcaba texted the scammer, per ABC7 Los Angeles. The fake Burton replied, “If selling the place is what will give us a fresh start and bring us closer to where we both want to be, then I am behind you.”
Abigail’s daughter, Vivian Ruvalcaba, told KTLA that the sale of the condo happened “within less than three weeks,” and claimed that her mother’s severe bipolar disorder diagnosis made her an easy target for the scammer. On a GoFundMe page launched to help Abigail save her home and cover legal fees, Vivian wrote that the condo only had $45,000 remaining on its mortgage and that the house had been flipped and resold to new owners.
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“I begged them to reverse the sale. I told them we’d give them their money back, just forget the deal ever happened. I pleaded with them to do the right thing. They told me they’d call me back,” Vivian wrote via GoFundMe. “But instead of calling me back, my parents received a three-day quit or pay notice taped to their door. That forced me to retain an eviction attorney on top of the real estate attorney already fighting to get the property back. And all of this, while our attorneys had already sent letters explaining my mother’s condition, begging these companies to stop.”
Vivian added that her parents face eviction on September 3.
“I feel stupid, taken,” Abigail told KTLA. “Why is somebody asking me for money? I feel like a dummy. I was in a fantasy world, obviously.”
ABC
Burton, for his part, told ABC7 Los Angeles that he’s aware his likeness has been used to con people. “That I know of who have lost money, it’s in the hundreds. It’s in the hundreds,” he shared, adding that he even sees scammers posing as him in his Instagram comments.
“First of all, I don’t need your money,” he continued. “I would never ask for money.”
When shown one of the deepfake videos sent to Abigail by ABC7 Los Angeles, Burton said, “Sounds like my voice for sure, 100%.”
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