Steve Burton is on the middle of a man-made intelligence rip-off that conned a girl out of hundreds of {dollars}.
Southern California native Abigail Ruvalcaba believed she and Burton had fashioned a romantic on-line connection after assembly by way of Fb over a yr in the past. Nevertheless, movies Burton allegedly despatched to her turned out to be deepfake clips created utilizing AI by a scammer.
“To me, it appears actual, even now,” Ruvalcaba advised native Los Angeles information outlet KTLA in an interview revealed on Wednesday, August 27. “I don’t know something about AI.”
By the pretend Burton movies, the scammer satisfied Ruvalcaba to ship them greater than $81,000, claiming they’d reimburse her. “After which checks and Zelle and Bitcoin, it was every thing,” she acknowledged.
Are you able to inform which of those movies is pretend?
A South L.A. household is sharing their story after a mom was conned out of her life financial savings by a scammer posing as a “Common Hospital” star. https://t.co/Kbci0ATUBM pic.twitter.com/l8ZTnIVRoL
— ABC7 Eyewitness Information (@ABC7) August 29, 2025
Along with her life financial savings, Ruvalcaba additionally offered her household’s apartment for $350,000, cash which she despatched to the scammer. “I keep in mind you had steered to promote this place. I stated no. Now I don’t care,” Ruvalcaba texted the scammer, per ABC7 Los Angeles. The pretend Burton replied, “If promoting the place is what is going to give us a recent begin and convey us nearer to the place we each wish to be, then I’m behind you.”
Abigail’s daughter, Vivian Ruvalcaba, advised KTLA that the sale of the apartment occurred “inside lower than three weeks,” and claimed that her mom’s extreme bipolar dysfunction analysis made her a simple goal for the scammer. On a GoFundMe web page launched to assist Abigail save her residence and canopy authorized charges, Vivian wrote that the apartment solely had $45,000 remaining on its mortgage and that the home had been flipped and resold to new homeowners.
“I begged them to reverse the sale. I advised them we’d give them their a refund, simply overlook the deal ever occurred. I pleaded with them to do the fitting factor. They advised me they’d name me again,” Vivian wrote by way of GoFundMe. “However as a substitute of calling me again, my mother and father obtained a three-day give up or pay discover taped to their door. That pressured me to retain an eviction legal professional on prime of the true property legal professional already preventing to get the property again. And all of this, whereas our attorneys had already despatched letters explaining my mom’s situation, begging these corporations to cease.”
Vivian added that her mother and father face eviction on September 3.
“I really feel silly, taken,” Abigail advised KTLA. “Why is any person asking me for cash? I really feel like a dummy. I used to be in a fantasy world, clearly.”
ABC
Burton, for his half, advised ABC7 Los Angeles that he’s conscious his likeness has been used to con folks. “That I do know of who’ve misplaced cash, it’s within the a whole bunch. It’s within the a whole bunch,” he shared, including that he even sees scammers posing as him in his Instagram feedback.
“To start with, I don’t want your cash,” he continued. “I might by no means ask for cash.”
When proven one of many deepfake movies despatched to Abigail by ABC7 Los Angeles, Burton stated, “Appears like my voice for positive, 100%.”