She was dealt a true scam's kiss from AI

A celebrity deepfake swindle cost a 66-year-old woman everything. She's not the only one being targeted.

- By Hannah Fry

Photographs by CHRISTINA HOUSE Los Angeles Times

VIVIAN RUVALCABA is trying to recover her parents' savings after her mother, Abigail Ruvalcaba, fell for a celebrity romance scam.

Abigail Ruvalcaba was intrigued when a handsome daytime soap opera actor she'd been watching for years reached out to her in a Facebook message.

His rugged exterior softened by his piercing blue eyes and an almost shy smile disarmed her. She answered him, pushing away any doubts as to why the Emmy winner would suddenly contact her.

They talked on the phone. He sent her videos professing his love for her. They made plans to buy a beach house so they could start their lives together.

The problem was she was making plans not with "General Hospital" star Steve Burton, but with a scammer who intended not to romance her, but to swindle her. In the end, the scheme led Ruvalcaba to sell her home to send money to the swindlers.

Fraudsters using promises of love and companionship to cheat the lonely is a crime as old as Victorian novels.

But the rapidly advancing world of artificial intelligence and deepfakes has given scammers powerful new weapons. And increasingly, they are using the likenesses of celebrities like Burton to lure victims.

Burton had no idea this exchange was taking place, but said he has had numerous encounters over the last few years in which strangers approach him and insisted they have been chatting.

"I get a thousand messages a day and 100 of them are people who think they're talking to me on other apps-Telegram, WhatsApp-my agent, my manager, my publicist, nobody will be reaching out to you," Burton said in a Facebook video warning his fans of such scams.