Irish holidaymakers are prey to the dodgy promises of holiday club firms,writes Laura Slattery

Irish holidaymakers are being ripped off by holiday club scams, despite warnings from consumer bodies to avoid signing up to such schemes. Bogus firms are also targeting timeshare owners increasingly desperate to sell their interest in resort properties in a market that is heavily weighted against sellers.

The European Consumer Centre (ECC) in Dublin has already received 120 queries on timeshares and holiday clubs to date this year. The ECC describes this figure as "quite high", considering it has not yet actively sought queries this year through any marketing activities.

Most queries come from consumers who have lost money in holiday club schemes they joined while on holiday last year or the year before. These consumers have lost an average of €7,000 each, according to the consumer centre. One couple complaining to the centre had spent €11,000 on a holiday club. Holiday clubs claim to offer luxury holidays at discount prices to club members who pay a deposit followed by regular payments.

However, when "members" return home, they discover the holidays they expected to take are unavailable or overpriced and their deposit is non-refundable.

The ECC advises consumers to avoid holiday clubs at all times.

Travellers to Spain, Lanzarote and Tenerife are those most frequently targeted by holiday clubs but they also operate in Portugal and Greece, according to Ms Mary Denise Fitzgerald, marketing manager for the ECC.

Police in Gibraltar have asked the centre to send them any information it receives about one club with connections to Ireland. The Spanish police also operate a blacklist of holiday clubs operating in their jurisdiction.

Det Insp John McCann of the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation says it is aware that people continue to invest in bogus timeshares and holiday clubs. The unit forwards case details to the police authority for the jurisdiction in which the offence took place.

The ECC says it hopes to promote awareness of timeshare fraud and holiday club rip-offs again over the next few months in conjunction with the Garda.

This may include a repeat of an exercise last year in which ECC staff distributed warning leaflets to passengers at Dublin and Cork airports.

"Wholly misleading and deceptive techniques" are used to lure tourists into holiday club contracts, a consumer centre network report warned last October.

Holidaymakers - often Northern European couples with credit cards - are handed scratch cards while sunbathing on the beach. These scratch cards reveal that they have won a free holiday, which they can only redeem by attending a presentation.

The presentations last two or three hours, during which the "winning" holidaymakers may be kept apart from their partners and served generous amounts of alcohol, while sales reps make verbal promises on the quality and availability of the discounted holidays. If any brochures or contracts are presented, holidaymakers are told they cannot take them away for inspection. They are also told they must sign up there and then or miss out.

Consumers feel pressured into handing over credit card details and signing membership contracts, and may be harassed for balance payments when they arrive home. They may then discover that holidays are only available in off-peak times, that they cost more than average travel agent packages and that flights depart from Britain. At this stage, consumers find it difficult to contact the holiday club company.

The sales companies have adopted new tactics to lure unsuspecting consumers, according to the ECC in Dublin.

"Not only are holidaymakers being approached on the beach but we were made aware at the beginning of this year of a holiday club cold-calling people directly in their homes in Ireland," says Ms Fitzgerald. Scratch cards offering free holidays may also be included in newspapers.

In Britain, consumers who fill out market research questionnaires may be told they have won a free holiday. These free holidays entail paying for a second person and then having to sit through the inevitable sales pitch.

Holiday clubs were originally set up to evade consumer legislation - specifically the 1994 EU Timeshare Directive - which offers consumers protection from the dodgy sales practices for which the timeshare industry has developed a reputation.

Under the Timeshare Directive, consumers must be given a cooling-off period of 10 days during which they can receive a refund for any deposit. People who use a credit card to pay the deposit for a timeshare have added protection: the credit card provider is obliged to give a refund within the 10-day period.

But if a holiday club member seeks a refund they are "relying on the goodwill" of the credit card provider, says Ms Fitzgerald. "In some cases the banks have given back holiday club money, but they have been under no obligation to do that."

Holiday club members may find some protection under a planned law called the Framework Directive, which aims to outlaw aggressive or unfair marketing activities. But this directive is only at the proposal stage.

Unlike holiday clubs, timeshares can sometimes be a good experience for consumers who want the security of knowing they can holiday in the same resort for a fixed week every year.

But even timeshare owners who manage to avoid hiccups such as fraudsters, high management fees and a permanently camped construction rig outside their balcony window, eventually run into difficulties when they try to sell their timeshare.

The possibility of making a sale is "very slim", according to the Timeshare Consumers' Association, a British-based advice and information service. "Those who do succeed only receive a very low price. And for an urgent sale, prices can be even lower. Some weeks are unsaleable."

If consumers bought their timeshare directly from the developer or a marketing company, they can expect to receive just 20 per cent of what they originally paid for it, the timeshare association says. "Anyone who tries to persuade you that it is worth a lot more is setting you up for a scam," the association warns.

The number of consumers being cold-called about reselling their timeshares is rising, Ms Fitzgerald confirms. One couple were contacted in Ireland and asked if they would be interested in travelling to Spain to sell their timeshare. The company reassured them that the cost of the couple's flights would be reimbursed and that the company would not try to sell them anything when in Spain.

Once they arrived, the couple were told that to sell their timeshare they would have to join a holiday club and pay €6,000, then wait 12 months for the money for their timeshare apartment. The couple has not yet been paid for their trip to Spain.