‘I got catfished – but there’s a happy ending’

A Sydney woman has spoken out about the bizarre moment she was catfished – but there’s more to the story than meets the eye.

When jeweller Siân Jones began creating a ring design for Adrian, a client who was about to propose to his girlfriend, she couldn’t believe how much she connected with the man and his story.

“A lot of my meetings are done totally online, just by email,” explains the owner and designer of Sydney-based Bert Jewellery.

“I only meet about 10 per cent of my customers in person.”

So when Adrian emailed her out of the blue from South Australia to ask her to design a ring for his girlfriend, Sam, it didn’t immediately ring any alarm bells.

“He said Sam was obsessed with my work, and that he could only imagine me designing it,” Siân continues.

“I just loved the sound of his girlfriend. She sounded so cool, like someone that I wanted to be best friends with. He said they always went away on the weekends in their camper van and that she rode a motorbike. She loved music festivals and was very sporty.”

When Adrian told Siân that his girlfriend also had a love of the colour yellow, the coincidences started to become uncanny.

“He said ‘I don’t suppose you ever come across any yellow gemstones?”

Siân did, in fact, have one in possession. One she’d been holding onto for quite some time.

“I had this one sapphire in my collection that I was obsessed with, that I never showed customers because I was kind of holding it back so that one day maybe it would be my own engagement ring, which sounded a bit weird,” she explains.

Siân had been dating her boyfriend Anthony for a few years, but the ring conversation hadn’t yet come up, so she “felt silly” even admitting this to herself, much less Anthony.

“It was such an unusual sapphire, all the way from Queensland,” she says.

“I just loved it so much, but I really wanted to make something special for Sam, having heard all about her from her boyfriend. I felt like it was a bit of a conundrum.”

Sian Jones from Bert Jewellers in Bondi has seen a surge in engagements during Covid. Picture: David Swift

When jeweller Siân Jones began creating a ring design for Adrian, a client who was about to propose to his girlfriend, she couldn’t believe how much she connected with the man and his story.

“I spoke to my partner Anthony and told him about this lovely couple who wanted a yellow ring, and asked whether he thought I should give away my yellow sapphire,” she recalls.

“He said: ‘you always say you’re going to make yourself some jewellery and you never do. When are you realistically going to make something from that sapphire?’ He was right.”

The next morning, Siân emailed Adrian to let him know she did have one gem that might fit the bill, and sent a video of the sapphire.

“Straightaway, he jumped on it,” she says.

“He said, ‘I’m obsessed with it. I love it. Thank you so much’.”

And so Siân began working on the ring’s design with Adrian via email.

The first inkling she had that something could be a little dodgy about Adrian was when she asked for the standard 40 per cent deposit.

“He lived in South Australia, so I didn’t figure I’d ever meet him,” she explains.

“I said I’d courier the ring to him, and I always ask for a deposit upfront as well. And weirdly, Adrian had deposited the money in a bank in Sydney. He hadn’t done a bank transfer like most people do.”

The ring is unique. Picture: Kristie Carrick/Instagram

A little put off, Siân pushed down her doubts – after all, the money was in her account.

“Some people do like to make in-person deposits, especially older customers who maybe aren’t comfortable using online banking,” she says, “so I thought, well, that’s a bit strange. But then he emailed me and explained that his brother lived in Bronte, and in order to prevent Sam from seeing the online transfer as they shared accounts, he’d asked his brother to deposit the money. I figured, that makes sense, and thought nothing further of it.”

As Siân got closer and closer to finishing the ring, she felt increasingly strange about the situation.

There was a twist to the catfish experience. Picture: Kristie Carrick/Instagram

“The whole way through making it I just kept thinking, ‘oh, I just love this sapphire so much, I can’t believe I’m going to sell it’. I just … felt wrong doing it,” she explains.

“I often come across gems that I’m obsessed with, and I just need to make something and sell it and then I kind of get it out of my mind – I’m obsessed with everything I make, so I thought I was probably just really invested in this design.”

Siân was putting the finishing touches on the ring, having just had it valued, when Adrian dropped another surprise. He was going to be visiting his brother in Sydney, and wanted to pick up the ring in person.

Anthony named a Bondi cafe as the handover site, and on Saturday morning, Siân set off to meet him.

Sian and Anthony. Picture: Kristie Carrick/Instagram

“I approached the cafe and I looked into it, and it’s a really nice cafe in Bondi, you know, a nice place to do a ring meeting and handover,” Siân recalls.

“But I was looking in, and there was no guy sitting alone by himself. There were couples, but no single guy on his own. And then suddenly, I feel a tap on the shoulder.”

But when Siân turned around, it wasn’t Adrian standing behind her, but her boyfriend, Anthony.

Sian and Anthony. Picture: Kristie Carrick/Instagram

“I said ‘what are you doing here?’ but Anthony just reached for my bag, and unzipped it to pull out the ring,” she laughs.

“He said ‘Siân, there is no Adrian. There’s no Sam, it’s you and me, Anthony and Siân. You’ve made this ring for yourself. The ring is for you. I set up a fake email address, and I’m the guy that you’ve been emailing for the last four or five weeks’.”

After taking a moment to recover from her shock, Siân realised that she’d been catfished – by her own boyfriend. Another few moments, and happily, she forgave him enough to say yes.

“I just couldn’t believe how beautifully he’d executed the entire thing,” says Siân, laughing, “and I was so happy I got to keep my special sapphire after all.”

After a few Covid-related rainchecks, the couple tied the knot in January 2023, and have been living in newlywed bliss ever since.

And these days, when Siân’s clients ask her to tell them the best proposal story she’s ever heard, she definitely doesn’t disappoint.

Bek Day is a freelance writer

Originally published as ‘I got catfished – but there’s a happy ending’