‘General Hospital’ Star Steve Burton Used To Scam Fan Out Of Life Savings
Nearly everyone who regularly uses social media has gotten a message from their favorite celebrity. The messages usually implore the fan to send a friend request, followed by more requests, sometimes for money. The fake profiles have photos of the celebrity and look legit. Most people are savvy enough to recognize the messages as a scam. But a new version of the scam is sweeping the internet. One GH fan fell for a scam involving Steve Burton that cost them their entire life savings.
Steve Burton has been a fan-favorite on GH for decades. He first joined the show as Jason Quartermaine in 1991. A few years later, the character was in a car accident that caused him to lose his memory and reinvent himself as Jason Morgan.
The actor has played the role of Jason Morgan on and off since 1996. He left the show in 2021 amid a disagreement over the COVID-19 vaccine requirements. Steve Burton briefly joined Days of Our Lives. He came back to GH in 2024.
GH Star Steve Burton Used To Scam Fan Out Of Life Savings
Steve Burton is a popular and recognizable soap star. That’s probably why scammers used him as bait to steal a fan’s life savings. Vivian Ruvalcaba from Los Angeles, California, recently spoke to a local ABC news channel about her mother, Abigail, sending her life savings to someone pretending to be the GH star.
But it was more than just a message on social media. The scammer sent a video that looked and sounded like Steve Burton. The deepfake video cost the woman her life savings.
“Hello, Abigail. I love you so much, darling. I had to make this video to make you happy, my love,” the fake Steve Burton said in one video.
The scammer eventually asked for money, claiming that his home was destroyed in the Malibu fires. The woman sent the scammer $81,304 in gift cards, cash and bitcoin. She believed the money was going to Steve Burton and that they were in a relationship together.
The actor recently married Michelle Lundstrom after divorcing his first wife, Sheree, in 2023. The woman’s daughter claims that her mom also sold her condo at the scammer’s urging.
The local ABC channel contacted Steve Burton for his reaction to the woman losing her life savings over a scam. He said he’s heard of “hundreds and hundreds” of women who have the same thing happen to them.
“I see people come to my appearances and look at me like they’ve had a relationship online for a couple years, and I’m like, ‘No, I’m sorry. I don’t know who you are,’ and you just see, It’s so sad, you see the devastation,” he added.
Becoming Too Common
Unfortunately, it’s not just soap fans who are getting scammed. A music fan was recently scammed into thinking they won a prize from country singer Jelly Roll. The scammer asked them to send money for shipping the prize. Luckily, the fan’s family member recognized the scam before it got out of control.
According to experts, the best way to avoid deepfake AI videos is to scrutinize the video and look for telltale visual glitches such as unnatural blinking and odd skin texture.
