He began eighteen years ago, cutting his teeth among the dailies and local television and, after numerous years as a correspondent for Il Tempo, Il Messaggero, Ansa and Metro, he landed at Rai 1, thanks to an undercover investigation into the world of underground Pitbull fights. He was then promoted to Rai 2’s primetime news programs before arriving at what would be his home, Rai 3.

In 2008 he joined Giovanni Minoli’s newsroom as a correspondent for Crash. He remained there for two seasons (in 2009 his report into Ex Eutelia’s financial collapse brought to light two dossiers to prosecutors, which resulted in the arrest of 18 people and numerous convictions). Later, in 2009, he joined the Report newsroom, with an investigation into beach concessions at Ostia, revealing for the first time figures, profits, aberrations and abuses in the managing of the waterfront.

Following some stints at La7, Sky and Mediaset (first at TG5, then at Le Iene), in 2012 Riccardo Iacona brought him over to Presa Diretta, where he remained for 4 seasons, winning in 2013 the Premio Ilaria Alpi for his report “Ladri di Calcio” [Football Thieves]. During the same period he also produced the reportage “Utilizzatori Finali” [End Users] with Riccardo Iacona, infiltrating the world of sexual predators in Thailand.

In the summer of 2016 he moved to Report, remaining there until 2020. In 2017 he was chosen to helm another historic Rai 3 program, Il Posto Giusto, and in that same year he created and hosted Far Web, an investigative program on haters.

2018 was the year in which he was recognised by the Premio Antonino Caponnetto for his reports on the ties between mafias, the business world and ultras. He experienced an incendiary attack on his home in Ostia Antica following the airing of “Una Signora Alleanza” [A Lady Alliance], the report in which he exposed ties between the ‘ndrangheta, ultras and the management of Juventus.

In 2020 he was called by the then Director of Rai 3, Franco Di Mare, to the helm of Mi Manda RaiTre, with the task of rewriting the format. Ruffo transformed it into a full-fledged investigative program. With views almost tripling in a couple of seasons, Mi Manda RaiTre has become one of the most beloved investigative programs on air, the second most-watched public service program and the third among all of Rai’s programming by share and approval rating.

Winner of the Premio Gaspare Barbiellini Amidei for his report “Sopravvivere al Mestiere” [Surviving the Job] and the Premio Sodalitas for “La Cura” [The Cure] (an investigation for which he offered himself as human guinea pig to document drug trialling in a Swiss clinic). He was a four-time finalist for the Premio Ilaria Alpi, and winner in 2013.

He made his publishing debut in 2014 with Utilizzatori Finali, co-written with Riccardo Iacona (Chiarelettere). The following year was his debut as an essayist, with the true crime narrative Gli Orologi del Diavolo [The Devil’s Watches] (Rizzoli), which in 2019 was made into an eight-episode primetime mini-series by Rai 1, for which he was a co-screenwriter. In 2024, he published Ingiustizia Sportiva [Sports Injustice] (Mondadori), a book of investigative journalism in which over 40 years of investigations and trials tied to football are analysed and laid out.

Considered one of the major experts into mafia, football fans and business, in February 2025 he was appointed to the presidency of the Osservatorio Antimafia of Rome-Ostia’s 10th Municipality.