That Wedding Dress Deal Online? It May Be Too Good To Be True

(CBS) -- A warning tonight for brides: Buying your dress online could doom your dream day.

Thousands of bad websites are ripping off brides to be. CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker talks to one victim.

Jeanne Fitzgerald's "perfect" wedding dress came from a website called Izidress.com. She could picture herself in her dream wedding in Mexico.

"I thought it was perfect for me," she says.

At a bargain price of $179, she eagerly ordered it. But when she got the dress, it was not the same product she had been expecting.

A week before wedding, she was forced to buy another dress –- this one from a local bridal store for $700.

"It's a sad story and unfortunately, we probably hear it once a month," says Ronia Ghusien, owner of Eva's International owner in Orland Park.

According to the American Bridal and Prom Industry Association, which tracks suspected scam websites, in 2011 there were 150. Today, there are more than 3,000.

Ghusien says the websites stay in business because brides in today's economy are looking for bargains.

"Everybody feels like they're going to get a deal if they dig deep enough online," she says.

Ghusein says the biggest red flag is the price. There are standard prices in the industry for most dresses. If it's 50 percent to 75 percent off, you may not get what you may get.

The American Bridal and Prom Industry Association has been successful in shutting down more than 1,000 sites in recent weeks, but there are many more out there. CBS 2 reached out to Izidress.com but did not get a response.