Canada's competition watchdog is warning consumers seeking reprieve from the winter weather to think twice before booking their holidays through a telephone salesperson.

Vacation scams typically surface around this time of year when winter-weary Canadians are desperate for a sunny vacation, said Tom Steen, the Competition Bureau's major case director for mass marketing fraud. 

Telemarketers may call offering a low-priced holiday, but in some cases the hotel is not what was promised, he said.

"What they do is overbook the hotel," he said. "They put you in a much lower grade hotel, and there'll be all kinds of restrictions. At the end of the day, most of the time, you'd have been far better off to arrange your own travel through a travel agent."

The calls, which are typically placed from the U.S., are usually for holidays in Florida, Steen said, and telemarketers will often use pressure tactics to push the consumer to purchase the package.

"Things are never as urgent as people want you to believe," he said. "You always have to check your facts when people call you when putting this kind of pressure on you to send money right away."

Consumers who are persuaded by the pitch should take down the information and do some independent research to compare prices.

"Go to a local travel agent or do some research on the internet and [ask] 'Is that really a good deal?' Most of the time, I think they'll see that it isn't, and they'll choose something else," he said.