Annie Gordon Baillie

Annie Gordon Baillie (February 1848 – after 1900) was a Scottish confidence trickster who, over a criminal career spanning four decades and three continents, defrauded merchants, aristocrats, landowners and charitable donors through elaborate schemes and more than forty aliases.

Criminal career

Early offences (1860s–1870s) By her early twenties, Baillie had begun defrauding local shopkeepers across Scotland and northern England by running up large unpaid bills under various invented titles and social pretenses. In 1872 she was convicted of obtaining goods by false pretences and sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment.

Admired benefactors: She ingratiated herself with military officers and members of high society—once persuading a Royal Navy admiral to underwrite her lavish lifestyle—only to default on all promised charitable works.

Throughout these operations, Baillie maintained multiple simultaneous identities, enabling her to reopen credit lines even while wanted under another name.