Our history

The knock-off prom dress list, 2012 to 2018

Helping prom shoppers find stores that sell authentic dresses has always been the job. For about five years, part of it was telling them which websites to stay away from.

The problem we started with

In 2012, shopping for a prom dress online was a gamble. Hundreds of websites were selling copies of designer gowns. They used the designers' own photos, so the listing looked exactly like the real Sherri Hill or La Femme dress. What showed up in the mail was something else.

The stories shoppers told us were the same every season:

• The dress did not look like the picture.
• The fabric was cheaper than the original.
• Zippers and straps broke while the dress was being worn.
• The beading pattern or the color did not match.
• Sizing was all over the place.
• The order shipped from overseas, arrived late, or never shipped at all.

Top Prom Websites launched to point shoppers to legitimate prom dress retailers, and away from the sites selling counterfeits.

How the knock-off list worked

The list ran on submissions. A shopper who suspected a site would send it in, and we would go to work.

1. Reported

   A shopper sends in a site they suspect.

2. Matched

   We work out which national prom designer each product photo belongs to.

3. Checked

   We ask that manufacturer. If the designer does not know the retailer, and it is not on the designer's store locator, it is not authorized to sell the dress.

4. Listed

   The site goes on the knock-off list, with links to any scam alert sites that had already flagged it.

Each report was written so that a shopper searching a site's name before buying would find the warning first.

The same process ran in reverse for the good guys. Retailers on our approved list had to sell only original designer dresses, and we researched their physical address before adding them.

The Site Seal

Alongside the list we offered a free seal for legitimate retailers to put on their own websites. To qualify, a store had to be an authorized retailer for every dress it sold online, use a secure checkout, follow good business practices and have been in business for at least three years. Our line for shoppers was simple: no seal, no deal.

The seal program has since been retired. If you clicked a seal on a retailer's site and landed here, that is why.

What actually worked: getting fakes out of Google

We also wrote a guide for prom manufacturers, because the usual tactics were failing.

Our argument was that the fix had to be digital. Google's DMCA takedown process let a copyright owner ask Google to drop an infringing site from its search results. We urged every manufacturer to train one employee to file those requests every week. A knock-off site that cannot be found on Google loses most of its customers.

Sherri Hill was one of the labels already doing it. In April 2012 we watched six counterfeit sites disappear from the results for a single Sherri Hill style after the company filed takedowns.

Where it ended up

Those 2,500-plus sites were removed from Google, taken down by their hosts, put out of business, or some combination of the three.

Around then, Google began removing these sites on its own. The shoppers kept coming, though, so we pointed them somewhere better: the local prom boutiques that carry the real dresses. That is what Top Prom Websites is today, a guide to the stores you can walk into and try a dress on.

The individual site reports from those years have been retired. Their old links now lead to this page.

How to spot a knock-off prom dress site today

The counterfeiters never went away entirely. The warning signs have not changed much since 2012.

If you already ordered from one

Don't panic. Here is what worked for the shoppers who came to us:

Where to shop instead