15 Shocking True Crime Docs to Watch After Netflix’s ‘Unknown Number: The High School Catfish’

Online deception leaves real damage, and cases can unravel through chat logs, phone records, and social media traces. If you just finished ‘Unknown Number: The High School Catfish’, these documentaries dig into digital breadcrumbs, manipulation, and the way investigators, families, and journalists piece together the truth from screens and messages.

This collection spans one-off films and limited series that track catfishing schemes, romance frauds, revenge porn empires, and crimes amplified by online platforms. You will find stories that follow web sleuths, undercover stings, and victims who use the very tools that harmed them to fight back, along with clear timelines, case details, and investigative methods.

‘Catfish’ (2010)

This feature follows a filmmaker who builds an online romance and then documents what happens when he travels to meet the person behind the profile. The film shows how photos, messages, and family accounts can combine to create a convincing identity that falls apart when checked in the real world.

It records each step of verification, from reverse-image clues to in-person interviews, and captures how a digital relationship can mask complex motives. The case would later give a name to a phenomenon that police and schools now flag in online safety education.

‘Talhotblond’ (2009)

This documentary examines an online chatroom relationship that drew in a middle-aged man, a younger coworker, and a user who claimed to be a teenager. When jealousy turned into a real-world confrontation, investigators uncovered the truth about the persona behind the screen name and the events that led to a killing.

The film lays out transcripts, emails, and workplace ties that show how fast a fabricated identity can escalate into violence. It also details how detectives traced messages and uncovered the adult who created the teenager persona to manipulate everyone involved.

‘Why Did You Kill Me?’ (2021)

After a young woman was killed in a drive-by shooting, her family created fake profiles to interact with suspected gang members on social media. The film shows how relatives logged every exchange, matched faces to names, and passed information to detectives until arrests followed.

It also explains how platforms preserved chat histories that became evidence, while police combined digital leads with surveillance and license plate data. The case offers a clear look at how victims’ families sometimes conduct their own online outreach to push an investigation forward.

‘Don’t F**k With Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer’ (2019)

This limited series follows a group of amateur investigators who tracked a suspect across forums, videos, and travel records. Members compared background objects, apartment layouts, and flight routes to narrow down locations and share findings with authorities.

Across three episodes, the series shows how timestamps, metadata, and crowd-sourced analysis supported a homicide investigation that crossed borders. It also documents how law enforcement verified tips, pulled CCTV footage, and coordinated an international arrest.

‘The Tinder Swindler’ (2022)

This film documents a romance fraud in which a man used a luxury persona to convince women to take out loans and wire large sums of money. The victims compiled receipts, text strings, and voice notes and worked with reporters to map the scheme across multiple countries.

The investigation traces how payments moved through accounts and how the same excuses appeared across conversations with different women. It ends by explaining the charges he faced, the legal outcomes, and how victims coordinated to expose the pattern.

‘The Most Hated Man on the Internet’ (2022)

This series covers a revenge porn website that published private images without consent and linked them to names and social profiles. Victims, parents, and activists organized to document posts, file takedown requests, and push for criminal charges against the site’s operator.

Over three episodes, it shows how investigators connected servers, advertisers, and associates to build a case. It also outlines the legal tools used to remove content and the policies that platforms adopted afterward to stop similar exploitation.

‘Cyber Hell: Exposing an Internet Horror’ (2022)

This feature investigates a criminal network that ran encrypted chat rooms where victims were coerced into producing content. Journalists and police describe the tactics used to recruit, extort, and isolate targets, along with the payment systems that kept the rooms running.

The film explains how undercover accounts gathered proof, how transaction records were traced, and how chat logs were preserved despite privacy tools. It also details arrests of key operators and the charges brought after authorities unmasked account holders.

‘Web of Make Believe: Death, Lies and the Internet’ (2022)

This anthology series presents separate cases about crimes born online, including swatting, sextortion, and conspiracy-driven violence. Each episode breaks down the platforms involved, the messages that set events in motion, and the jurisdictional hurdles that slowed early investigations.

Interviewees include victims, perpetrators, and investigators who explain how evidence moved from screens to courtrooms. The series shows the role of telecom records, IP tracing, and digital forensics in securing convictions across very different crimes.

‘The Puppet Master: Hunting the Ultimate Conman’ (2022)

This three-part series tells the story of a man who posed as an intelligence agent to isolate victims from their families and drain their finances. It documents how he used coded phrases, cash-only rules, and constant relocations to control and confuse the people around him.

The episodes follow a family’s search for a missing relative and show how bank records, lease agreements, and phone data helped track movement. The production includes police interviews and case files that link earlier victims to the same long-running deception.

‘The Imposter’ (2012)

This feature recounts how a young man assumed the identity of a missing Texas boy and convinced authorities and relatives to accept his story. It shows how photos, language skills, and staged narratives helped him pass checks that should have revealed obvious discrepancies.

Investigators and experts explain how they finally exposed the ruse through physical comparisons and records that could not be faked. The film ends with a clear timeline of the impersonation and the legal consequences that followed once his real identity was confirmed.

‘Misha and the Wolves’ (2021)

This documentary examines a bestselling memoir about a child’s survival story that drew intense media attention and then collapsed under scrutiny. Publishers, neighbors, and researchers retraced the author’s history and found records that contradicted key claims.

The film explains how genealogical databases, school archives, and immigration files revealed the truth. It also shows the contracts, lawsuits, and interviews that mapped the unraveling of a widely accepted narrative.

‘Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives.’ (2022)

This limited series follows a New York restaurateur whose partner convinced her to move money with promises that grew more extreme over time. It lays out bank transfers, payroll delays, and internal emails that show how a successful business slipped into debt and closure.

The production details the search that ended with arrests after a routine food order identified a location. It also includes employee testimony, court filings, and audio recordings that illustrate how the scheme operated behind the scenes.

‘American Murder: The Family Next Door’ (2020)

This film uses police body-cam video, home footage, and text messages to reconstruct a homicide investigation from the first welfare check to a confession. It lets viewers follow the exact sequence of interviews, forensic searches, and lie-detector steps.

The documentary compiles social media posts and family messages to establish timelines and relationships that became central to the case. It also includes interrogation room footage and discovery documents that explain how contradictions led detectives to the truth.

‘Audrie & Daisy’ (2016)

This feature documents two sexual assault cases involving teenagers and shows how photos and comments spread across social networks with lasting harm. Families, classmates, and investigators describe the response by schools and police and the uneven progress of each case.

The film covers protective orders, legal filings, and advocacy efforts that followed. It also shows how online harassment compounded trauma and prompted changes in local awareness programs and policy discussions.

‘Shiny_Flakes: The Teenage Drug Lord’ (2021)

This documentary tells the story of a teenager who ran a drug marketplace from his bedroom using a website and mail delivery. Investigators explain how package tracking, hidden compartments, and postal patterns led them to a suspect.

The film includes interviews with the operator and shows the stash rooms, ledgers, and packaging methods seized by police. It also traces the court case and the connection to a later fictional series that drew on the details of the investigation.

If you have a favorite doc in this space that we missed, drop your pick in the comments so everyone can queue it up next.