11 True Crime Documentaries Like ‘Unknown Number: The High School Catfish’

As demonstrated by Netflix’s Unknown Number: The High School Catfish, virtual knives can cut just as deep.

The documentary, released in September 2025, chronicled the twisty true crime tale of a teenage couple who endured two years of cyberbullying, stalking and harassment from an unknown number. When Lauryn Licari and Owen McKenny finally learned who was behind the barrage of incessant, cruel texts that broke them up and created mass paranoia at their small Midwestern school, the truth was almost too impossible to believe.

Authorities traced the masked phone number to Lauryn’s mom, Kendra Licari.

Kendra was ultimately arrested and pleaded guilty to two counts of stalking a minor, per UpNorthLive. She was sentenced to 19 months to five years in prison and was released on parole in August 2024, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections. At the time of filming the documentary, her daughter was still picking up the pieces.

“She told me to kill myself,” Lauryn said in Unknown Number. “It makes me feel a little bit sad. Why is my own mom telling me to do that?”

Interested in exploring more horrific tales of cyberbullying and online scams? Here are 11 documentaries like Unknown Number to stream.

The Tinder Swindler 

In 2018, a man named Simon Leviev, whose real name is Shimon Hayut, posed as the son of a diamond mogul on Tinder and scammed an estimated $10 million from women he met on the app. The Tinder Swindler recounts how the con artist was able to lure multiple victims with his lavish lifestyle, which they were unknowingly footing the bill for.

Watch The Tinder Swindler on Netflix

Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitive.

Before Sarma Melngailis met Anthony Strangis, she was the owner of a New York City vegan restaurant that attracted an A-list clientele. But his greedy schemes and her desire to keep her dog immortal led to the downfall of her once-thriving business and turned her into a woman on the run.

Watch Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives. on Netflix

Untold: The Girlfriend Who Doesn’t Exist

Former University of Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o claimed that his girlfriend’s death had inspired him to reach the BCS National Championship in 2012. But when media outlets started probing into his tragic story, they learned that not only had the football player never met his late girlfriend — but there was no evidence that she ever existed.

Watch Untold: The Girlfriend Who Doesn’t Exist on Netflix

Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare 

Based on the 2021 podcast of the same name, Sweet Bobby investigates the decade-long relationship between radio presenter Kirat Assi and a man she met on Facebook named Bobby Jandu.

However, that wasn’t who Assi was talking to. That person (and the sophisticated catfishing network they created) would turn out to be much closer to her in real life than she would have ever imagined.

Watch Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare on Netflix

Lover, Stalker, Killer

For four years, Dave Kroupa was harassed by a woman he had briefly dated after meeting online. Her campaign of terror included over 18,000 emails, 50,000 text messages, threats to his girlfriends and loved ones, and, eventually, cold-blooded murder.

Watch Lover, Stalker, Killer on Netflix

The Man With 1000 Kids

When Dutch YouTube personality Jonathan Jacob Meijer offered to be a sperm donor to hundreds of families, he left out a glaringly important detail: that he had already fathered over 500 children. The Man with 1000 Kids follows Meijer’s prolific sperm donation and the families who fought to stop him.

Watch The Man With 1000 Kids on Netflix

Con Mum

In 2020, Graham Hornigold received an email from a woman claiming to be his long-lost biological mother — and the illegitimate daughter of a former sultan. Though she alleged that she was dying of cancer and wanted to leave her fortune to her son, Hornigold’s loved ones became increasingly skeptical of her true intentions and identity.

Watch Con Mum on Netflix

Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing 

Piper Rockelle rose to internet fame for her goofy, prank-driven YouTube videos, often filmed with her “Squad” of fellow tweens. So when a group of them filed a now-settled $22 million lawsuit against her mom, Tiffany Smith, and accused her of abuse (which she has denied), people began to question what really went down in her social media empire.

Bad Influence explores the rise and fall of Rockelle’s Squad and investigates their allegations against the adult tasked with making them stars.

Watch Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing on Netflix

Take Care of Maya

When Maya Kowalski’s mother requested ketamine treatment to help ease the pain of her daughter’s rare neurological condition, the staff wrongly accused her of Munchausen syndrome by proxy. The tragic ordeal, recounted in Take Care of Maya, culminated in the 10-year-old’s three-month stay in state custody and her mother’s death by suicide.

Watch Take Care of Maya on Netflix

Can I Tell You A Secret?

A strange, but harmless message from a follower turned into a total nightmare for three women who became the victims of one of the U.K.’s most notorious cyberstalkers, Matthew Hardy. In Can I Tell You A Secret?, the women recount how he harassed and spread lies about them for years, and the police constable who finally tracked him down.

Watch Can I Tell You A Secret? on Netflix

The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard

A victim of Munchausen by proxy, Gypsy Rose Blanchard spent most of her life believing that she was terminally ill before she played a role in the 2015 murder of her mother Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard. The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard features interviews with Gypsy herself while she was incarcerated.

Watch The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard on Hulu