The catfisher in the minivan

Alert: This article is a spoiler for Unknown Number: The High School Catfish on Netflix. 

Imagine you’re a high school girl. Your phone won’t stop buzzing. It’s not friendly DMs, texts or social media notifications.

Instead, hundreds of cruel, anonymous messages flood in, calling you names, threatening you, turning your friends against you and even urging you to take your own life.

This is the true story of Netflix’s Unknown Number: The High School Catfish.

🧍🏼‍♀️ Who was it?

It started in 2020 when 13-year-old Lauryn Licari from Beal City, Michigan, and her boyfriend Owen began getting bombarded with vicious, untraceable texts and DMs, sometimes over 50 a day. 

Her mom, Kendra, was right there with Lauryn, consoling her, talking her through what was going on and helping her file reports with the school and police. 

But this was all a sinister act. Kendra was the one harassing her own daughter. 

⛓️ A digital predator’s tool kit

Kendra didn’t need sophisticated computer and hacking skills or tools sold on the dark web. She used apps available to anyone.

• Spoofing and burner apps: TextNow and TextFree let you create fake phone numbers. Kendra would send hateful texts, then simply get a new number.
• Bogus social media accounts: You can make fake social media accounts in seconds. Kendra did this on Instagram and Facebook, pretending to be Lauryn’s classmates or friends.
• VPN (virtual private network): Kendra used a VPN to hide her device’s IP address, making the messages appear to come from locations across the country.

She weaponized these tools to not only attack her daughter but to pin the blame on Lauryn’s friends, isolating her completely. 

🚔 The shakedown

The FBI used advanced IP tracking and digital forensics to cut through the veil of spoofing apps, social media profiles and VPNs. 

They followed tiny pieces of metadata and login information right back to the source: Kendra’s phone and her home Wi-Fi network. Prosecutors compared this case to Munchausen syndrome by proxy, where a parent secretly harms a child to maintain control and play the hero. 

Kendra was arrested, pleaded guilty and served time in prison. She was released in 2024 and is banned from contacting her daughter. Lauryn, now 18, lives with her father.

⚠️ The takeaway

While the apps Kendra used have legitimate purposes, they can easily be weaponized by anyone. AI wasn’t around when Kendra was targeting her daughter. Now harassers can amp it up by asking AI anything from how to get started and which devices to use to the best ways not to get caught.

Parents, if you think your kids are old enough, watch the documentary together. Technology is a powerful aid, but it’s only as moral as the person using it. 

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