A scammer used General Hospital star Steve Burton’s likeness to create deepfake videos in an attempt to scam fans.
This sounds like a storyline that would play out on General Hospital, but unfortunately, it happened in real life. Soap actors have warned fans about impostors creating social media accounts and asking for money. Now, they’re taking it one step further by creating deepfake videos. One scammer used artificial intelligence to create a video of Steve Burton.
Tale of Deceit
Deepfake technology is on the rise, and it’s not going away anytime soon. According to the ABC station L.A., a woman named Abigail assumed she was talking to Burton on Facebook Messenger. Their friendship started in October 2024 and moved to WhatsApp. Burton romanced the woman and asked her for money after sharing that he lost several homes in the L.A. wildfires.
The videos in question looked and sounded like the actor’s, but they were created by a scammer. Abigail’s daughter, Vivian Ruvalcaba, shared the videos with A.I. experts, who informed her that the scammer used Burton’s likeness. According to Soap Opera Digest, Abigail sent the scammer a total of $81,304 in Bitcoin, cash, and gift cards. She lost her savings and has now filed for bankruptcy.
Watch Out For Imposters
Abigail had to sell her $350,000 condo to send a majority of the profits to the scammer. Her daughter was able to crack the case before it went too far. Burton spoke to ABC7 about the situation and called out the deepfake epidemic. Other victims have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars from this scam.
Unfortunately, it can be hard to track them down since there are multiple people involved. Even Burton was convinced those deepfake videos were of him. “It sounds like my voice for sure, 100%,” he told the outlet. The family filed a lawsuit to get their condo back. They claimed that Abigail didn’t have the cognition to complete the sale.
The Ruvalcaba family also wants to warn other soap fans of the dangers of deepfakes and AI scams. You can stay safe by checking a soap star’s social media verification, such as a badge or checkmark. Always be dubious if you receive a DM from a soap star asking for money. When it comes to deepfake videos, look for odd facial expressions, blurs or sharp lines, color or texture differences, or if the lighting doesn’t match the background.
