Love can come from mysterious places, but never from a “celebrity” asking for money online. That’s a fact that one woman from Los Angeles, California, learned the hard way. The woman sadly gave so much money to someone whom she thought was the real Steve Burton of General Hospital. Well, turns out he was just a scammer using AI, and the LA woman not only lost $151,000 but also her home after she sold it to fund the “fling.”
66-year-old Abigail Ruvalcaba from Los Angeles, California. In October 2024, Abigail met a man who introduced himself as TV actor Steve Burton, prominent for the soap opera General Hospital. According to Abigail’s daughter, Vivian Ruvalcaba, this “Steve Burton” emotionally manipulated her mother and even used AI apps and deepfakes during video calls to masquerade as the actor. This allowed the scammer to get $81,000 out of Abigail after he kept asking for money or loans over the course of a few weeks.
“I thought I was in love. I thought we were going to have a good life together. To me, it looks real, even now. I don’t know anything about AI,” says Abigail, transcript courtesy of KTLA
Of course, Abigail quickly ran out of money, but she still believed in “Steve Burton”, which is why she sold her condominium below market value for only $350,000 so she could quickly hand over an additional $70,000 to the scammer. In total, it appears the scammer managed to get $151,000 out of Abigail, according to her daughter’s GoFundMe page. It’s not clear where the rest of the $350,000 went, but when Abigail and Vivian tried to buy the condo back, the buyer wanted $100,000 more on top of the $350,000 selling price.
Abigail was apparently suffering from a severe Bipolar 1 Disorder, which explains how fast she fell for whom she thought was an actor. She even argued with her daughter about how she thought the scammer was legitimate.
“I feel stupid, taken. Why is somebody asking me for money? I feel like a dummy. I was in a fantasy world, obviously.”
People Online are Highlighting the Dangers of the Improved Scam
While this kind of celebrity scam isn’t exactly new, the added layer of deepfakes, AI, and video calls has made it easy to fool people who aren’t tech-savvy. Right now, Vivian and Abigail are on an ongoing uphill legal battle to get her home back with the help of attorneys before she gets evicted in September from the condo she sold.
Meanwhile, people online were still in disbelief at how easily the scammer funneled money out of Abigail. It appears Abigail was a premeditated target since she was a big fan of General Hospital and Steve Burton, something the scammer might have known beforehand. Others are cautioning people online, while some aren’t exactly showing empathy for an abused elder.
“She never once thought it strange that the star of a soap opera is hitting her up for all this money?!” asks one Facebook user
“If any man asks for money, that’s a sign, please”
“So she’d give up her life savings too sleep with some character on General hospital 😄”
“I feel bad for her but she should have known better, a actor wouldn’t ask you for money. There was a woman thinking she was dating Keanu Reeves and she was sending him money..lol”
