For the last few years, it seems, actors’ official social media accounts have repeatedly warned fans about impostors posing as them online. Now, thanks to a deepfake video done with artificial intelligence of General Hospital‘s Steve Burton, who plays Jason Morgan, things have gone a step too far — and it has cost one Los Angeles woman everything.
Fake Out
The ABC station in L.A. reports that a woman named Abigail was bamboozled when she struck up an online relationship with Burton — or so she thought. The videos she believed were communications from the GH star were actually produced by a scammer. The victim’s daughter, Vivian Ruvalcaba, shared one of the videos with 7 On Your Side, who showed it to AI experts. Those experts told the station the scammer likely used AI software in order to clone the actor’s image and voice.
The victim’s communication with the scammer began last October on Facebook Messenger and moved to WhatsApp, where the fake Burton was romancing the woman, claiming he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. When the scammer told her he lost several properties in the L.A. fires, she believed him.
The news site reported that Ruvalcaba told them that for years, her mother has suffered from mental illness and Bipolar 1 disorder. The family filed a police report with the LAPD, which alleged that Abigail sent the scammer at least $81,304 in gift cards, cash and Bitcoin, believing Burton needed the money to buy them a home where they could live together. Now, the woman has to file for bankruptcy.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the woman also sold her condo for $350,000 and was poised to send a large portion of the profits to the scammer. Fortunately, her daughter discovered it in time.
“Had I not intervened when I did, she was scheduled to send the scammer $70,000 out of that money that was sitting there,” Ruvalcaba told the news website. “She’s ashamed. I know she is, and to put that stress on me, on herself, on my dad, the entire family, I know it weighs heavy on her.”
ABC7 also contacted Burton, who told them, “That I know of who have lost money, it’s in the hundreds. It’s in the hundreds.” The GH star called the deepfakes an epidemic. The outlet showed the scammer’s video to Burton, who agreed it was eerily convincing. “Sounds like my voice for sure, 100%,” he told them. The family is currently involved in a lawsuit to try to get the condo back, claiming Abigail did not have the mental capacity to execute a home-sale contract. The family went public with their story in hopes of warning others about the dangers of AI-driven scams.
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