
The Victorian scam artist who tried to dupe the islanders of Skye
Annie's story is told in a new series of BBC Radio 4's Lady Swindlers with Lucy Worsley.The episode draws on newspaper articles, court reports and a book called The Adventures of a Victorian Con Woman: The Life and Crimes of Mrs Gordon Baillie by Mick Davis and David Lassman.Annie was born into poverty in Peterhead, a fishing port in Aberdeenshire, in February 1848.By her 20s, she was defrauding shopkeepers and running up credit for goods she had no intention of paying for.In the 1870s, Annie became more ambitious and set up a fake charity to establish a Protestant school for girls in Rome - a heartland of the Catholic faith.Donations poured in but the school was never built."The law catches up with her briefly in 1872 and she spends nine months in prison for fraud," said historian Worsley.
Following her release from prison, Annie had a whirlwind few years.She married an opera singer and the couple had three children. The family spent some time in New York.But in November 1884, she turned up on the Isle of Skye "wearing fancy clothes and jewels," according to Worsley. "She passes herself off as a wealthy literary lady, who is writing a novel about the plight of the crofters of Skye," she added.
Skye, along with other west coast island communities, was in the grip of the Crofters' War.Waged throughout much of the 1800s, it was a dispute between landowners and communities of tenant farmers distressed by high rents, their lack of rights to land, and eviction threats to make way for large-scale farming operations.The process of moving families out of inland areas where they had raised cattle for generations to coastal fringes of large estates, or abroad to territories in Canada, had started with the Highland Clearances in the 18th and early 19th Centuries.Both the clearances and the Crofters' War were marked by violent clashes between people facing eviction and landowners and the authorities.
One of the bloodiest incidents was the Battle of the Braes on Skye in 1882.After being attacked with stones by a crowd of men and women, about 50 police officers from Glasgow baton-charged the mob.The unrest spread to Glendale in Skye and in 1883 the frustrated authorities called for military intervention to help round up the ring-leaders.In early 1883, the iron-hulled Royal Navy gunboat Jackal appeared in Loch Pooltiel, off Glendale.Marines disembarked from the Jackal and landed at Glendale's Meanish Pier to help police in making arrests.Newspapers sent reporters to cover the dispute's twists and turns, so Annie was well versed on the "war", and any opportunity to benefit for it.Philanthropy was all the rage among wealthy Victorians, and Annie tapped into that.Posing as a "lady novelist", she told Skye's crofters she would fundraise for their cause.
Annie did an interview on her "charity work" with the Aberdeen Evening News, turning up at a hotel in Portree in a striking crimson dressing gown and fingers adorned with jewelled rings.Scottish historical and crime writer Denise Mina said the disguise distracted people from what Annie was really up to."She had a great eye for an emotive cause," Mina said."Physically, how would I describe her? She's very pretty, very petite and always well turned out."But Mina added: "She is taking money from crofters who are just about to go to war because they have been run off their land and burned out of their homes."She is going to raise money and leg it with the dosh."It is quite spiteful what she is doing, but it is all wrapped up in this lady façade."
Annie's scam took a bizarre turn when she suggested the islanders quit Skye and emigrate to Australia.She even travelled out to Australia to negotiate a deal for land as a new home.In Melbourne, she was shown an unwanted area of marshy ground.Annie said 1,000 crofters could relocate there, and give up farming and become fishermen instead.But Mina said: "The whole point is the crofters don't want to leave - that's the whole dispute."The deal collapsed and Annie returned to London where more trouble awaited her.
Publicity around her scheme had caught the attention of a Scotland Yard detective - Det Insp Henry Marshall - who had long been on the trail of Annie and her shopkeeper frauds across London.She was arrested in 1888, leaving crofters on Skye still waiting for their "golden ticket" to a new life in Australia.Annie was later jailed for five years for swindling the shopkeepers. The money involved in the frauds was believed to be far less than the true amount of Annie's ill-gotten gains over the years. After her release, she was soon back in jail - this time for stealing paintings.Once released from prison, she emigrated to New York where in 1902 there is a record of her being placed in a workhouse as punishment for vagrancy. And then she vanishes without a trace.Lady Swindlers' in-house historian, Prof Rosalind Crone, said Annie's story exposed the "dark side" of charitable giving in Victorian times."It wasn't always about helping the unfortunate or supporting worthwhile causes," she added.For crofters, the war led to a public inquiry and eventually legislation that protected their land rights - and hopefully any chance of ever being scammed by phoney lady novelists again.
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I get up on stages and shout about the fact we have to change the language; we have to provide permission for victims to come forward because nobody reports this as a crime because of the blame and shame element.' The art of the scam Baxter explains she has always talked openly about scams with her widowed mum, a retired town clerk who lives in Eastbourne, East Sussex. She views her as fully clued up. 'She's amazing, very switched on. She tells me how to manage my money; she helps friends who are less computer savvy,' she says. But Linda became ill with Covid in January 2024 and more isolated, and that affected her ability to process information and make decisions. She clicked on a scam social media advert to buy a scented candle and afterwards received genuine communication from her bank saying there had been attempted fraudulent activity on her credit card. This communication meant that when the impersonation scam happened later, her defences were down. 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The messages started up again. Recently, she was caught off-guard and responded to a text stating she had a parking fine. She clicked on the link, which took her to a legitimate-looking government website, and entered her contact details, only stopping and calling her daughter before giving her bank details. 'She said, 'I've done something silly',' Baxter recalls. She says it's a terrible feeling – that people are 'watching' her mum. 'I can't be with her all of the time,' she says. She explains even the least vulnerable older person becomes so the more they are targeted. 'There's potential for more susceptibility because there's more chance you might respond,' she says. Once a person has become a victim, they often lose confidence, too. 'The wellbeing and mental health effects are quite catastrophic, so it can sometimes catapult people into more vulnerability,' she says. She adds a staggering statistic: 'If you're elderly and a victim of a scam, you're two-and-a-half times more likely to die or go into residential care in the next 12 months.' Family rifts caused by scammers Baxter is no stranger to distressed families and, despite reiterating that anyone can become a victim, still cannot quite believe she is now one of those family members. 'There's a whole load of emotions I've dealt with (in families): frustration, desperation, the fact you haven't been able to protect them,' she says. 'A lot of shame as well. Why did I not notice? We should have visited more. And it can tear families apart. I've seen where criminals have isolated people and turned them away from their families.' This is particularly true of investment or romance scams. Baxter knows families unable to ever heal rifts. 'The criminals have said 'you can't talk about any of this because they're going to be jealous', or 'they want your money for inheritance',' she says. She describes scammers as groomers. 'They might phone on a daily basis, and so if a victim says 'my daughter says this is a scam' they'll say, 'I told you they were going to say that.'' The families won't be able to get through. 'Sometimes that could be because of cognitive decline, or because they've been coerced, controlled and emotionally manipulated to the nth degree, or it could be that there was a broken relationship before, so the criminals will hang on that,' she adds. Baxter gives broad advice to anyone trying to help a family member who has been scammed. 'The first thing is communication,' she says. 'The more people share the fact they've been a victim, the more it gives permission for others to share.' That is why Linda wanted her to speak. She also emphasises the importance of the right reaction you give a parent or grandparent. 'It's listening with empathy and no judgement. That first conversation is the most important, so they feel they can talk to you about it.' Baxter stresses the importance of simply asking a family member if they're not sure about a purchase, or a message, or any other form of communication – and to 'pause'. 'Nothing is that urgent. Criminals rely on pushing us into what's called a 'hot state' when our decision-making processes are impaired,' she says. She just wishes Linda had called when 'Simon's' text first landed. Scamming methods to beware of Lottery and clairvoyant letter scams These were rife when Baxter started working with Trading Standards 20 years ago, yet she explains they still are today. A lottery scam will suggest a big win if the recipient responds with an admin fee – but will also stress 'you mustn't tell anyone', explains Baxter. A clairvoyant letter scam, meanwhile, will often appear to be in handwriting, repeatedly use the recipient's name, and claim a clairvoyant has seen 'money on the recipient's cards'. It will ask them to respond with money for their prediction or may even threaten them if they do not 'cross their palm with silver'. These, says Baxter, are often the scams that victims don't reveal out of shame. 'Everybody's very focused on AI and the deepfake stuff,' she says, 'but in my world victims do tend to be over 70, and the old scam methods are still working.' Impersonation scams As Linda experienced, impersonation scams can be fake messages and calls from a bank, while it's also common for scammers to pretend to be the police or the NHS. And, while landlines are most prevalently used, mobiles are also targeted. 'The police one can sometimes be 'your bank account has been compromised, you need to go and get all your money out, and we're going to send a courier to collect it',' explains Baxter. A call pertaining to being from the NHS might not feel financially threatening at all, but it's no less damaging. 'It could just be someone pretending to speak from the NHS to get your personal information, to get sensitive medical history so later they could target you,' she says. Telephone scams More broadly, telephone scams can encompass any hot topic that scammers pick. Recently, calls selling roof insulation have been frequent. Baxter also lists a range of home goods and technology scams. 'We see 'you need to protect your washing machine and fridge freezer' and offers of an insurance-backed guarantee. Fake white goods protection policies will take a direct debit of £20 from your account each month. Older people might not access online banking and check their direct debits,' she says. Then there is the call claiming your computer has been compromised. 'They'll say 'we're from Microsoft, we just need to help you to block it.' They'll get you on to your computer and give you some code that gives them access so they can scrape it.' She adds: 'Victims have even been offered a call-blocking subscription to protect their phone from criminals.' Romance and 'pig butchering' fraud Baxter explains that victims of romance scams tend to be in their 50s and upwards, with the scams becoming more prevalent as people try online dating in older age. 'People are in an online relationship with somebody, and then that person needs money for plane tickets, hospital bills, or house maintenance', she says. She warns that romance scams can also evolve into a scam termed 'pig butchering'. This is when the victim is encouraged to make increasing financial contributions, usually in the form of cryptocurrency. 'The scammer will say something like, 'oh my God, I've had such a great day, I've just invested in this amazing scheme, it's going to make me millions of pounds.' And they talk about that a lot, and the victim will say, 'I've got £500 I can spare on that' – so you invite yourself in.' The 'butchering' later becomes apparent when the funds invested and the returns never appear. 'Hi Mum, it's me' texts These aren't new but are still prevalent, warns Baxter. In the form of a text, the victim will receive a natural-sounding message purporting to be from their son or daughter needing financial help. 'It'll often start with 'Hi Mum, my phone just broke, so can you delete the number and save this one?'' says Baxter. The conversation will continue depending on how the victim responds. ''I lost my phone' or 'I haven't got my bank account set up yet', or something like that. 'You couldn't just send £500 to my account?' and they'll send some details.'