Wanna Marchi
Self
Fortune Seller: A TV Scam
2022
Ended • 1 Season • 4 Episodes
Director: Nicola Prosatore
Overview
Follow controversial slimming cream sellers turned con artists Wanna Marchi and Stefania Nobile, from their TV success to their scam and jail time.
Seasons
- Status
- Ended
- Seasons
- 1 season
- Episodes
- 4 episodes
- First aired
- Sep 21, 2022
Cast
Reviews
4 min readThe Grift That Sold a Nation
I’ve watched enough true-crime documentaries to know the rhythm by now: the slow reveal, the archival footage, the talking heads nodding gravely at the camera. But Fortune Seller: A TV Scam doesn’t just follow the formula—it dissects it, then sells it back to you with a wink. Because the scam at the heart of this series isn’t just about two women fleecing desperate viewers out of their savings; it’s about how easily television itself becomes the con.
Wanna Marchi and Stefania Nobile weren’t just grifters. They were stars. For years, they hawked “lucky charms” and psychic services on late-night Italian TV, their infomercials a gaudy mix of neon promises and Marchi’s unshakable confidence.
The series opens with a clip of her in full flight—hair teased, voice booming, selling not just a product but a fantasy: that fate could be bought, that luck was a transaction. It’s mesmerizing. And then it’s horrifying.
The documentary’s greatest trick is making you complicit. You watch Marchi and Nobile work their audience—mostly elderly, mostly lonely—and you recognize the playbook. It’s the same one used by every late-night huckster, from snake-oil salesmen to modern-day crypto bros.
The difference here is the scale. This wasn’t some back-alley operation. What makes Fortune Seller more than just a true-crime curiosity is its refusal to let the medium off the hook.
The series doesn’t just ask how Marchi and Nobile pulled it off; it asks why no one stopped them sooner. The answer, it seems, is that television—especially the kind that thrives in the dead hours of the night—has always been a place where exploitation wears a friendly face. The archival footage is damning in its banality: Marchi’s grinning pitches, the staged testimonials, the way the camera lingers on her hands as she “blesses” a lucky charm.
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsA pensioner said no. Her son mailed a satire show.
Fosca Marcon got a call from Wanna Marchi's people in autumn 2001. Marchi had dreamed of her. For 150 euros, winning lottery numbers would arrive by post. Marcon hung up. They called again. Her son Filippo emailed Striscia la Notizia. The program recorded the rest. Marcon paid the 150 euros and received numbers plus "magic" salts. The numbers lost. An expert asked if the salts had dissolved. They had not. That meant black magic. The in-house wizard, Mario Pacheco do Nascimento, wanted 2,000 euros to lift the evil eye. The Irish Times later reported he was Marchi's butler, cook, and driver. When Marcon still refused, Stefania Nobile came on the line, latestnetflix.com maintains, wishing her "all the evil in the world" and adding that "you'll never sleep another wink as long as you live." 
The tax police counted 305,964 clients.
Striscia aired the sting in December 2001. Guardia di Finanza followed the money. Irish Times, writing after the January 24, 2002 arrests, said the Asciè operation took about 32 million euros between 1996 and 2001. Marchi was 59. Stefania was 37. Three employees went with them. Investigators found properties near Imola, in Piedmont, on Lake Como, and in Madrid. Much of the rest looked gone, with talk of San Marino. A secretary's account to police named two elderly women who had paid 516,000 and 413,000 euros. Operators had instructions to focus on people likely to fold for money or grief. Marchi already had a 1990 conviction, 1 year and 11 months for fraudulent bankruptcy of the cosmetics company that carried her name. In the 1980s the belly-melter cream sold three packs for 100,000 lire. Her catchphrase was "D'accordo?!" She cut a 1989 single under that title with The Pommodores. From 1983 she hosted Wanna Marchi Show on Rete A with her children Maurizio and Stefania. ,
Netflix handed her a pen and let her pitch it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7FpJWLaZCY
Nicola Prosatore directed the four-episode Italian original Wanna, titled Fortune Seller: A TV Scam on English Netflix. Alessandro Garramone and Davide Bandiera wrote. It landed September 21, 2022. Episode titles run Tummy Melter, Devils, Magician, Evil. The first hour opens with Marchi in a confessional. A producer hands her a pen. She pitches it on the spot. Decider quoted her line, "The only thing I can do? Sell. Give me something to sell and I'll sell it, no problem." The same review skipped the series, arguing hour one hid the crime. The Sun recapped the 2006 trial. Prosecutor Gaetano Ruta asked for 12 years for Marchi and 13 for Nobile. On April 3, 2006 they took 2 years and 6 months for conspiracy to commit fraud plus 10 years on other counts. Wikipedia notes the Nastri d'argento nominated the series as best documentary in 2023. It also tracks a 2004 local strip, Tremate tremate, the witches are back, while the case was still moving, a 100-hour live marathon on GO-TV in September 2021, and a 2017 Isola dei Famosi booking that Mediaset pulled after the backlash. The official trailer is on Netflix's YouTube. , , , ,
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