Combating Fortunetelling Fraud (aka Psychic Fraud) @NCASVideo

Uploaded December 2020 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago

Presented by Bob Nygaard

Fortunetelling fraud (aka Psychic Fraud) is a prevalent problem in the world. It is a certain species of fraud whereby self-proclaimed psychics emotionally abuse and financially exploit vulnerable people who are experiencing problems in their lives, bilking them out of billions of dollars each year under the guise of providing assistance.

Private investigator Bob Nygaard will explain how he builds a criminal case against self-proclaimed psychics who commit fortunetelling fraud, in order to cause these con artists to be arrested, charged, and successfully prosecuted. Additionally, he will enumerate the impediments that often exist when trying to bring self-proclaimed psychics to justice and the strategies that he employs in his efforts to protect society and make victims whole.

Bob Nygaard is a retired NYC cop (NYC Transit Police District-3 ) (Nassau County NY Police), turned-private investigator, turned actor, who specializes in the identification, apprehension, and prosecution of non-traditional organized crime suspects. Nygaard specializes in debunking and causing con-artists, most notably self-proclaimed psychics, to be arrested and he has recovered millions of dollars for fraud victims around the world. Nygaard has appeared on ABC News' 20/20, Crime Watch Daily, The Dr. Oz Show, The Security Brief with Paul Viollis podcast, Nancy Grace, German TV show Achtung Abzocke, and numerous other news and radio broadcasts, as an expert in confidence crimes. A short documentary entitled NYGAARD has been filmed about his work. The documentary is a self-reflective account of Nygaard's work helping the victims of psychic fraud. Nygaard's first role as an actor in a SAG-AFTRA production came in the CBS true-crime TV series Pink Collar Crimes, in which he portrays himself.

Q&A will follow the presentation using YouTube's live chat.

Views expressed in the presentation are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Capital Area Skeptics (NCAS).

Combating Fortunetelling Fraud (aka Psychic Fraud)

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$1. Arboreal Mind: Finding Self in Nerve Cell Branching (Giorgio Ascoli) Part 1 of a 2-part talk. Presented by Giorgio Ascoli, Ph.D., Computational Neuroanatomy Group, Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study, George Mason University, VA The importance of neuronal morphology, i.e. the tree-like shape of nerve cells, in modern neuroscience is rooted in two foundational aspects. On the one hand, dendrites and axons mediate respectively the functional input and output of neurons. On the other, they constitute the essential substrates for network connectivity. To connect this level of scientific analysis to the philosophical problem of the mind-brain relation requires a radical shift in the current research paradigm to include first-person (subjective) experience as a legitimate topic of empirical investigation. To date, the exact neural correlates are not yet known for any conscious function. However, two general principles are commonly (if implicitly) believed. First, mental states (thoughts, feelings, memories, intentions, etc.) consist of spatio-temporal activity patterns in networks of neurons. Second, learning, meant as the acquisition of the potential to instantiate a previously unknown mental state, corresponds to the formation of new connections among neurons, enabling the activation of the new spatio-temporal pattern underlying said mental state. In this talk, Dr. Ascoli will introduce the notion that the branching structure of neurons provides a fundamental physical underpinning for a key cognitive function, namely the capability to learn. In particular, he will explain that this capability is far from trivial and that any individual can typically only acquire a fraction of the relations that can in principle be known. Moreover, he will illustrate how the spatial architecture of axons and dendrites provides a crucial constraint (and insight) on the capability to acquire knowledge. This talk will be presented at a lay level because subjective experience and tree shapes are accessible to all humankind. Dr. Ascoli is head of the Computational Neuroanatomy Group at the Krasnow Institute. The groups main effort is to model neuronal morphology (the shape of brain cells) and its influence on network connectivity and electrophysiological activity. One of the products of that group is L-Neuron, a modeling tool that generates and describes realistic neurons. Among the current research projects of the Computational Neuroanatomy Group are anatomically plausible neural networks and autobiographic memory. He edited the scientific book, Computational Neuroanatomy: Principles and Methods, which defines Computational Neuroanatomy in broad terms. His main long-term scientific and philosophical goal consists in establishing a working model for the highest cognitive functions such as human consciousness. His current consciousness model is fundamentally based on associative learning. On the experimental side, Dr. Ascolis research involvement is primarily in neuroanatomy, but his scientific background is biochemistry. As a researcher at the former Laboratory of Adaptive Systems of the N.I.H., he worked on the structural characterization of a learning-associated neuronal protein, Calexcitin, and on the Prion protein, the infective agent of Mad Cow disease. He received his M.Sc. (Laurea) from the University of Pisa, and his Ph.D. from the Scuola Normale Superiore, in Italy, where he investigated drug-protein binding. The views expressed are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect the views of National Capital Area Skeptics.$

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