Steve Burton is at the center of an artificial intelligence scam that conned a woman out of thousands of dollars.

Southern California native Abigail Ruvalcaba believed she and Burton had formed a romantic online connection after meeting via Facebook over a year ago. However, videos Burton allegedly sent to her turned out to be deepfake clips created using AI by a scammer.

“To me, it looks real, even now,” Ruvalcaba told local Los Angeles news outlet KTLA in an interview published on Wednesday, August 27. “I don’t know anything about AI.”

Through the fake Burton videos, the scammer convinced Ruvalcaba to send them more than $81,000, claiming they would reimburse her. “And then checks and Zelle and Bitcoin, it was everything,” she stated.

In addition to her life savings, Ruvalcaba als

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