Holidaymakers are being warned to steer clear of free gifts and cash offers while they are enjoying the sun abroad this summer.

The advice comes after a Rights and Wrongs reader, who works as a housekeeper, agreed to fork out £14,000 for membership of a "holiday club" after she and her husband were approached in the Spanish resort of Fuengirola.

The woman, who asked not to be named, said: "I just want other people to be really careful. It's too late for us - there's nothing we can do about it - but other people should have nothing to do with these timeshare firms.

"We were walking along the street in Fuengirola when this girl came up offering us a scratchcard with a chance to win a breakfast in a local bar," she said.

"She then told us we had won the equivalent of £400 in pesetas and we had to go to a new complex to claim our money.

"The next thing was she had called a taxi and bundled us in, saying it was a new leisure dome and they were just trying to promote it.

"It turned out to be a worldwide holiday club where you pay for four weeks a year. We already owned a £6,000 timeshare, which took us all over the world and we were quite happy with. But it was only for one week.So we knew some of the questions to ask - but they told us a pack of lies.

"They said if we didn't want to take any of the weeks we would get £350 for each one unused, and they said after we had taken our first week we would be given the option to cancel if we didn't want to carry on with our membership."

She and her husband paid a £600 deposit and signed an agreement to hand over their existing £6,000 timeshare and £7,400 when they returned to England, which they did.

It was not until February, when they applied for a refund on their unused holiday weeks, that they found out they would only get any money if those weeks were rented out.

And they say they also found out there was no cancellation of the contract

"When we came to read the contract after we had signed it and paid the money we found it was nothing like what they were telling us.

"We have taken legal advice but there is nothing we can do because we signed the contract and we can't prove that they told us the things they did," she said.

She told Rights & Wrongs: "I am phoning because with the summer holidays coming up, I want to warn people who may be approached while they are abroad."

West Yorkshire Trading Standards advise holidaymakers to sign nothing until they have read the contract and fully understand it.

"The advice always is to make sure that you know exactly what you are buying and that it is what you want before you sign - otherwise it will be too late."

A surprise Barry didn't count on

Retired Barry Carlile is counting the cost of a surprise he planned for grandson Jack.

He sent off a cheque for £19.99 to Cambridgeshire company Psychic Frog for the five-year-old's photograph and name to be included in a book it was intending to publish.

The Peterborough firm advertised its offer in newspapers and national magazines - and it has now ceased trading.

Mr Carlile, of Hunsworth, Cleckheaton, said: "They cashed the cheque within a few days and wrote saying the book - The Definitive Guide To Kids - would be launched last October at a world book fair in Frankfurt with a print run of 25,000 copies."

The letter, signed by partner Trudi Ramm, said: "With your help, Psychic Frog will produce the country's first-ever instruction manual to the raising of our children".

Mr Carlile, 66, said: "We were supposed to be having a free photographic session for the pictures and when I heard nothing I phoned and sent e-mails - but we never got through or received any reply."

The letter claimed the firm was a member of Peterborough Chamber of Commerce, but spokesman Maureen Taunton said: "We discontinued their membership because we were getting so many phone calls about them."

A spokesman for Cambridgeshire Trading Standards said: "We have had calls from all over the country about this firm.

"Our advice is that if you don't have personal knowledge of a business or service a company is supposed to be offering then don't part with your money."

A recorded message on the firm's phone said it had ceased trading and while photographs would be returned, partners Trudi and Freddie Ramm were also trying to raise funds to pay back the money.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.