Beware Prom Dress Rip-offs Online, Consumer-Advocacy Group Warns
(CBS) -- With high school girls thinking about prom season, here's a warning from the Better Business Bureau: Beware of prom dress scams.
Many of the websites are year-round. And some spring up in the spring -- and then fold after prom season.
"This is really a perennial problem. It started many, many years ago and it seems to be getting worse," says Steve Bernas, president of the Better Business Bureau of Chicago.
Beware Prom Dress Scams, Group Says
He says some of the web sites that offer prom dresses at dramatically reduced prices are simply too good to be true. People can end up with a poor imitation of what they ordered, Bernas says.
Last year, Jordan Winkler ordered a dress from one of many Chinese websites offering designer dresses at huge discounts. It was, she tells CBS 2's Mike Parker, a cheesy knockoff.
"The beading and the lace was like falling off," she says.
Lisa Urbina ordered a wedding dress from one of those websites. It was supposed to be svelte and form-fitting. It ended up being three sizes too big and made of cheap material, she says.
Yet brick-and-mortar retailers like David Gaffke in East Dundee are having a hard time competing.
"I'm good at what I do. How can I compete with the Internet?" he says. "It's killing my business."
Consumers can do their own research online, using a search engine. Enter the company's name with the word "scam" after it and see what comes up.
"Go to the dressmaker's website and see if the company is an authorized retailer. And nine times out of ten, if it's one of those fraudulent sites you're not going to be an authorized retailer," Bernas says.
If a suspect website seems to show a nice photo of a nice-looking prom dress, Bernas says, it's easy for scammers to cut and paste from a legitimate website.
