Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to hoax, to fool.

1847		C. Brontë Jane Eyre II 42: I presently perceived she was (what is vernacularly termed) trailing Mrs. Dent: that is, playing on her ignorance; her trail might be clever, but it was decidedly not good-natured.
1901		C. Kernahan Scoundrels & Co. 251: To see the Ishmaelites ‘trail’ a sufferer from ‘swelled head’ is to undergo inoculation against that fell malady.