Last updated on September 28, 2025
Warning: Spoilers ahead for the Netflix documentary Unknown Number: The High School Catfish.
I recently sat down to watch the Netflix documentary Unknown Number: The High School Catfish, which I highly recommend. This documentary chronicles the story of high schoolers in a small community who were cyber-bullied and harassed through text messages for over a year. The sender utilized internet applications to send the messages from disposable cell phone numbers, making it difficult to identify the sender.
When police finally tracked the sender through an IP address, the revelation shocked everyone — and led to speculation that this might be a case of cyber Münchausen syndrome, a digital twist on a disturbing psychological pattern.
Unknown Number left many viewers asking: why would someone do this? What drives someone to manufacture victimhood, even inflicting actual harm on another person to do so?
In this post, we’ll explore what cyber Münchausen syndrome is, how it shows up online, and the ways false victimhood stories erode trust, exploit empathy, and create cyber risk.
What Is Cyber Münchausen Syndrome?
Have you ever stumbled into an online support group, a video on your social media feed, or a Tiktok live stream and felt a nagging doubt—is this person’s story or situation for real?
The internet has made it easier than ever to share our struggles. But it’s also made it easier to perform suffering for attention, sympathy, power, or even financial resources.
Cyber Münchausen syndrome, also called Munchausen by Internet, is a term used in clinical and academic literature to describe someone who fabricates illness, crises, or victimhood online. Unlike people oversharing genuine struggles, these individuals deliberately construct false stories. It’s a digital version of the psychiatric condition Münchausen syndrome (also known as FDIS, or Factitious Disorder Imposed on Self) where someone feigns or induces illness in real life.
At its core, cyber Munchausen is a form of social engineering. Instead of stealing passwords, people exploit human trust, pulling emotional capital, money, or influence from others.
Examples of Munchausen syndrome in online spaces include:
- Fabricated illness: Creating posts or videos about a fake medical condition to gain sympathy and support. This might look like long social media updates about treatments that never happened, or TikTok livestreams staged in a “hospital room” with props to make the performance more convincing.
- Fabricated victimhood: Claiming to be the target of harassment, stalking, or assault that never took place. These false narratives exploit people’s protective instincts, pulling in attention, validation, and sometimes even legal or financial resources meant for real victims.
- Fabricated crises and emergencies: Cycling through dramatic life events such as car accidents, sudden job losses, or household disasters that didn’t occur. These recurring crises keep the spotlight on the storyteller and ensure a constant stream of emotional support from their audience.
While a lot of cases involve someone fabricating their own suffering, there is a darker variation that shifts the deception onto others. Instead of claiming illness or trauma for themselves, manipulators invent or exaggerate crises affecting another person.
Cyber Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy
In some instances, deception is projected onto another person — often a child, partner, or dependent. Instead of claiming “I’m sick” or “I’m being stalked,” the manipulator fabricates stories about someone else’s suffering in order to harvest sympathy, attention, or even resources.
The psychology is the same as cyber Münchausen: attention is the primary currency. But by shifting the story onto another person, the manipulator gains an additional layer of control and insulation. Outsiders may be less likely to challenge the narrative because it feels cruel to question stories about a sick child, a domestic violence victim, or a traumatized friend.
To understand the distinction, here’s a side-by-side comparison of cyber Münchausen and its variation, cyber Münchausen by proxy:
| Aspect | Cyber Münchausen | Cyber Münchausen by Proxy |
|---|---|---|
| Who is “suffering” | The manipulator invents or exaggerates their own illness, trauma, or crises | The manipulator invents or exaggerates illness, trauma, or crises affecting another person (child, partner, dependent) |
| Primary motive | Seeks validation, sympathy, or attention for themselves | Gains validation or sympathy by presenting themselves as a caring protector or advocate |
| Common tactics | Social media posts about fake illnesses, livestreams from staged “hospital rooms,” false claims of harassment or assault | Posting dramatic updates about a child’s “illness,” or inventing crises for dependents |
| Risks to others | Exploits the audience’s empathy and drains community trust | Directly harms the person cast as the victim, while also exploiting any audience’s empathy |
| Digital footprint | Multiple accounts, fabricated photos, inconsistent details in personal narratives | Sock-puppet accounts posing as relatives, falsified medical updates for others, staged photos of dependents |
A Real-World Example: The Case of Kendra Licari
The Netflix documentary Unknown Number: The High School Catfish unpacks one of the most disturbing recent examples of digital deception. Over the course of more than a year, thousands of abusive, threatening text messages were sent to a Michigan teenager and her boyfriend. The harassment escalated to the point of dominating their daily lives — and investigators struggled to trace the source because the messages came through disposable numbers generated by texting apps.
When the truth emerged, the revelation shocked the entire community. The sender wasn’t an outside predator: it was the mother of one of the victims, Kendra Licari. Kendra had been catfishing her own daughter, sending a relentless stream of hostile messages, only to turn around and position herself as the supportive parent trying to help.
This behavior echoed a form of cyber Münchausen by proxy. Licari didn’t just fabricate a crisis — she perpetrated actual harm against her daughter. In doing so, she occupied a dual role: the hidden victimizer and the apparent rescuer. This mirrors a classic manipulative cycle often seen in abuse dynamics, where the same person creates the danger and then reaps attention, sympathy, and control by stepping in as the savior.
The fallout was severe. Licari was arrested, charged, and ultimately convicted of two counts of stalking a minor. Beyond the legal outcome, the case left a national audience grappling with the question, why did Kendra Licari do that?
Causes of Cyber Munchausen Syndrome
Why would someone go to such lengths to fake illness, trauma, or harassment online—even to the point of cyberbullying their own child? At its core, cyber Münchausen is driven by unmet psychological needs — but technology magnifies the reach and reward of those behaviors.
The motivations behind cyber Münchausen often trace back to a few recurring patterns:
- Need for validation: Many cases begin with a deep craving to be seen, cared for, or important in the eyes of others. Illness and crisis guarantee attention.
- Control through chaos: Creating and managing a fabricated crisis gives the manipulator a sense of power. They decide when the drama starts, escalates, or resolves.
- Identity and self-worth issues: Some individuals feel invisible or inadequate in their real lives, so they construct dramatic personas online to fill the void.
- Addiction to sympathy: The flood of comments, messages, and support can become as addictive as a drug, reinforcing the behavior.
Cyber Münchausen doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It grows where psychological vulnerabilities intersect with technological enablers. Together, they create the perfect conditions for deception:
- Anonymity and distance: Behind a screen, it’s easier to lie without immediate consequences or body language giveaways.
- Ease of fabrication: Disposable phone numbers, fake photos, and video filters all make false stories easier to build and harder to validate.
- Scalable attention: In a physical community, sympathy has limits. Online, it can scale to thousands of strangers offering around-the-clock attention and validation.
When these psychological drivers meet digital tools, the consequences extend far beyond personal drama. What begins as a cry for attention can escalate into fraud, identity theft, reputational damage, and other cyber risks that impact not just individuals but entire online communities.
Cyber Risks Related to Munchausen Syndrome
Cyber Münchausen might start as a lie told for sympathy, but the ripple effects rarely stay contained. In online spaces, fabricated illness and crisis stories can erode trust, destabilize communities, and even spill into fraud. What looks like one person’s drama can quickly become a wider cybersecurity concern — with risks that impact both individuals and platforms.
- Fraud and financial exploitation: Fake GoFundMe campaigns, CashApp/Venmo requests, and fabricated emergencies can turn emotional manipulation into direct financial gain.
- Identity theft and misuse of images: Photos of real patients, children, or medical details may be stolen to lend credibility to false stories.
- Reputation damage: False claims of abuse, stalking, or assault can permanently damage someone’s reputation and livelihood.
- Manipulation of online safe spaces: Internet support groups can be destabilized or destroyed by fabricated narratives, leaving real victims unsupported.
Understanding the risks is only half the battle. The next step is learning how to recognize the warning signs — the patterns and red flags that reveal when someone may be faking illness, crisis, or victimhood online.
How to Spot Someone Faking Online
So how do you recognize when someone might be faking illness online or performing digital victimhood? Here are the most common patterns:
- Overly Dramatic Narratives: Illness or trauma stories read like a movie script — packed with sudden crises, miraculous recoveries, and endless complications.
- Crisis at Convenient Times: Every time attention wanes or someone else shares a story, the person suddenly has a new emergency.
- Contradictions: Scan past posts. Do timelines match? Do details shift? Is there evidence of copy-pasted content?
- Sock Puppet Accounts: “Family members” or “friends” appear out of nowhere to confirm the story, often with the same writing style.
- Casualness About Catastrophe: They describe dire events (a collapsed lung, a violent assault) with an oddly breezy tone.
Cyber Münchausen preys on compassion, but awareness is the best defense. By recognizing these patterns, you can protect your energy, safeguard your online communities, and avoid being duped by someone’s manufactured chaos. Empathy in online spaces is still vital — but it should be paired with discernment, so your support goes to those who truly need it.
Closing Spell: Guarding Your Energy in the Age of Digital Victimhood
Cyber Münchausen is a reminder that ancient dynamics — attention-seeking, manipulation, and control — don’t disappear in the digital age. They simply evolve and amplify, finding new outlets in the platforms and technologies we use every day.
Ultimately, human psychology itself can be weaponized online. That’s why protecting your empathy is just as important as protecting your passwords. By recognizing the signs of online deception and holding your boundaries, you reclaim your power and protect your energy, choosing where your attention flows.
If you want more strategic protection spells for the mind, heart, and hard drive, subscribe to the Cyber Risk Witch newsletter below.
