Teens Are Being Catfished Into Buying Bad Prom Dresses

When Alivia Briggs found a pink gown with silver and crystal embellishment online, she thought she found her dream dress for prom. The 17-year-old, without having tried on the piece, took a risk and paid $223. Two days later, a package from Allanhu, a Chinese e-commerce site, arrived — but it definitely wasn’t what she expected. “I thought they had sent me a bed sheet,” the junior at Austin High School in Alabama said. “Although the dress they sent me was pretty, it wasn’t what I had paid for.”

Briggs was one of the lucky ones. Although she was disappointed that her purchase turned out to be a “quilt with arm holes and iron ons,” she can take comfort in the fact that she’s just one of many to get scammed by sites like Allanhu. Juliet Jacoby found a cheaper version of a red dress with sheer sleeves that she wanted and spent $35 on RoseGal.com. When the gown arrived — late and just a week before prom — the zipper was broken and the cheap material looked nothing like the luxe version shown online.

Unfortunately for a lot of prom dress shoppers, either hunting for a good deal or taking to the Internet to find something special, the results haven’t always returned the desired product. This is so prevalent, in fact, that many on social media who have shared their horror stories have dubbed the practice “fashion catfishing.”

There have been multiple accounts of money scams and shipping snafus, in addition to the obvious disappointment of not receiving the desired product. BuzzFeed recently reported that many sites, such as the aforementioned Allanhu and RoseGal, in addition to Zaful, SammyDress, DressLily, RoseWe, and more, are all fooling unsuspecting consumers with deals that seem — and turn out to be — too good to be true.

Buyer beware!

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