I recall a novel from my childhood in which a sailor warns the captain about people in the area (SW Ireland, IIRC) occasionally luring ships into underwater hazards, thus causing a wreck. The locals would then comb the beaches for anything that washed up, making a tidy sum from the salvage.
Is there anything to such stories? Found a few references to similar legends in the Carolinas, but nothing concrete yet.
In maritime studies, the "wreckers that led ships to wreck on purpose" is one of those myths that we encounter regularly. It's a myth though. Be it Key West in Florida, Nags Head in North Carolina, Cape Cod in Massachusetts (and their "moon cussers"), or the coast of Cornwall in the UK; no documentation exists for this practice - at least nothing has come to light (no pun intended) yet that I've seen. While I can hear it now, "it was an illegal activity, and they were good at it, that's why there is no documentation for it." No, what I'm saying is that no documents that talk about real wreckers talk about this activity. Throughout history, just because something is illegal doesn't mean it doesn't get documented. My work with piracy has shown me that. Also, no evidence to the contrary doesn't mean that it is evidence in favor of it happening. But, on another note, does it even make sense that wreckers would do this?
It would probably be more accurate, definition-wise, to call these people salvagers rather than wreckers. But to use false lights doesn't make much sense. Ships steer away from lights to avoid wrecking, plus you would need one heck of a light to fool a vessel that a false light is a light house or the kind of light that were meant to warn ships of a dangerous area. A lantern that you can transport easily enough for such an operation seems highly unlikely. And then there's the factor of it might attract attention to people on the shore who are authorities - you don't want the authorities to spot you or see what you're doing. If someone was really dead set to wreck a ship, and since actually leading a ship to wreck on purpose is a criminal act anyway, it's just easier (and is probably more likely to accomplish what you desire) to commit piracy. It will require killing the crew or making them disappear somehow, since they would be witnesses, but said wrecker pirates could still wreck the ship and leave some of the crew behind, but killed to make it look like it was part of the wreck.
Where does this come from then? Smuggling and maritime adventure are intriguing and make great myths, legends, and stories. The idea of criminals bringing about their deeds by the trick of false lights and luring a victim to their demise and having the ability to use plausible deniability that "hey, they wrecked, that happens to ships sometimes,"...it sounds like a cool story devise.
So, who created the story first? I don't know, but I have a hypothesis. When I read about 19th-century Florida Keys wreckers, it appeared that the ship owners and their insurance companies hated the wreckers the most. The wreckers took valuables and products from the wrecks and sold it for their own profit, even though they didn't buy the goods. These insurance people and owners of vessels would be the first person who would want to make these salvaging activities carried out by wreckers something public would be against. So why not make claims or make stories up that the wreckers were actually causing wrecks? The public won't support that, surely. Maybe new laws can get enacted to further restrict wrecker operations or at least get the authorities and their men closer on their heels. Wouldn't be surprised if that's how the stories started.
For more on the Florida Keys/Key West wreckers of the 19th century, I found that The Florida Historical Quarterly had a series of articles in the mid 20th century on the subject. Here are three of their articles:
And, there is a whole book with good footnotes (yes, footnotes, not end notes) on the Cornish wreckers: Pearce, Cathryn J. Cornish Wrecking, 1700-1860: Reality and Popular Myth. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2010.
Hope this helps, hopefully I didn't crush your dreams or anything like that. At least You'll have some pointers if you want to pursue wreckers in general and not the mythical ones that purposely led ships to wreck.