The postcard arrives from the Costa del Sol or the Canaries. "We had a lovely lunch today sitting outside in the sun eating fine food and drinking loads of wine. On our stroll back to the apartment, a man stopped us on the street and gave us a scratch card.

"We rubbed off the covering and found out we'd won a free holiday! It was definitely our lucky day. To collect our prize we had to go with the holiday club representative to watch a presentation in a nearby hotel. After a 20-minute taxi journey, we joined other club representatives in the conference centre. They gave us a few drinks while we watched a two- or three-hour presentation. It wasn't really the way we wanted to spend the rest of our day but we were getting a prize after all. . ."

The sometimes sad ending to this story has led the European Consumer Centre (ECC) to warn Irish tourists to be wary if approached to purchase cut-price holidays through holiday clubs when abroad.

Several Irish holiday-makers to Spain have joined holiday clubs paying companies between £1,500 (€1,904.61) to £10,000 after being subjected to high-pressure sales tactics.

To date, the Dublin-based ECC, an advice and information centre jointly funded by the European Commission and the Director of Consumer Affairs, has received four serious complaints and several queries regarding this new practice.

People are either told they have won a holiday or that cut-price holidays are available if they join the club.

Following a presentation, the tourists are asked to sign a contract and pay half the holiday club investment - usually amounting to between £3,000 and £5,000 - by credit card. The other half may be due within three to six months but some companies claim the total amount will be returned to the investor.

ECC legal adviser Mr Colin Daly says "We're not saying it's illegal, but be very careful before you sign, especially if you're giving large sums of money to an investment company."

In the high-pressure sales scenario described by the returning tourists, Mr Daly says people tend to sign documents they ordinarily would not sign and they regret it later.

"The carrot is that the money will be returned to you after three to five years. People should be asking themselves about the protection if it's not returned. If it is returned will it be returned with interest? Those amounts won't be worth the same then as they are now."

When people return home and read the contract's small print they realise they must pay £55-£65 for the holiday club's annual brochure and are obliged to pay the additional fee, he said.

"If they sign, they've signed a contract and the usual enforcement procedures apply although it's hard for people to enforce something in Ireland from Spain. However, if you back out, you may suffer loss of the cash already handed over," Mr Daly said.

If the funds are not returned, it may be difficult and expensive to file legal proceedings to recover the money, said Mr Daly. The ECC is investigating the holiday club companies concerned and has found that many of the clubs have addresses in the Isle of Man or Channel Islands and are relatively new companies.

These may be reputable companies, says Mr Daly, but if you are really interested in these holiday clubs there is nothing to prevent you from signing up once you are home and have had time to think about it.

The Director of Consumer Affairs, Ms Carmel Foley, recently issued a warning to consumers about timeshares, which have also been sold using similar sales methods.

In January, Spain enacted timeshare legislation based on an EU directive but holiday clubs are not covered under these regulations or EU distance/doorstep selling regulations, says Mr Daly.