It all started with a phone call. The voice on the other end of the line promised then 33-year-old Matteo Gironi an all-expenses paid trip to Las Vegas. First, he'd have to attend a sales presentation, supposedly with no obligation to buy the product being pitched -- membership in a vacation club called Club Par Excellance.

Gironi told W5 that when he and his current wife, Monique Bisson, attended the sales pitch near Toronto's international airport, Club Par Excellance salespeople promised them and about seven other couples what seemed to be amazing discounts on travel and consumer goods -- for everything from hotels and flights to appliances and car repairs. Those deals didn't come cheap, access required joining Club Par Excellance for a hefty membership fee -- Gironi and Bisson said they were told it would be over $14,000, but if they signed up on the spot they would receive a $5000 discount.

The pressure to buy was unrelenting, according to Gironi. But finally he and his wife decided that the deals they would receive on goods and services for a new home they wanted to buy, and for travel to visit family in British Columbia and Italy, would offset the cost of membership.

Gironi and Bisson joined Club Par Excellance. They weren't alone. Gironi recalled that more than half the couples attending the session that evening purchased memberships with the club.

Sadly, the promises of cheap travel and discounted goods and services never materialized. When Gironi and Bisson took that supposedly free trip to Las Vegas, they showed their Club Par Excellance membership card to the hotel staff and were surprised by the response.

"They had no clue what this was all about and they said their discounts are offered on their website to the general public. It doesn't matter if you're a Club Par Excellance member or not," Gironi told W5.

When Gironi asked for discounts from other companies promised by Club Par Excellance, he was told that those companies had no affiliation with the vacation club.

Gironi said it was then that they came to a painful realization: "We knew we had been duped."

It got worse. When Gironi tried to get answers and his money back from Club Par Excellance, he couldn't find anyone to talk to. The company had gone out of business.

Gironi and Bisson's experience is far from unique. Between 2007 and 2009, Ontario's Ministry of Consumer Services received more than 1,300 complaints and inquiries about vacation clubs. That prompted the Ministry to investigate and eventually charge three companies,Club Par Excellance, Fun for Life Vacations and Canadian Universal Network Solutions, and their respective principals under the Consumer Protection Act.

Club Par Excellance directors, and the official of Fun for Life Vacations were convicted of consumer fraud and forced to pay restitution to victims. The third case, relating to Canadian Universal Network Solutions, is still before the courts.

"We have had some success in clamping down on these unfair practices, said Vishnu Kangalee, Manager of Compliance at the Ontario Ministry of Consumer Services.

While the Ontario government did crack down on vacation clubs, W5's investigation discovered that despite the convictions, the companies or their principals are back in the business of selling vacation clubs.

"They seemed to be disappearing and maybe re-emerging under a different name," said Ric Borski of the Better Business Bureau for Mid-Western and Central Ontario.

A company called Scroll Inc., or MSI Travel Club, took over the web address for Club Par Excellance and the day to day servicing of Club Par Excellance members. Nevertheless, Gironi was told it would cost him another $200 if he wanted access to the new club's benefits. Gironi declined.

W5 has discovered that the man registered as the manager of MSI Travel, Wilton Neale, was recently censured by the Ontario Securities Commission for being "engaged in misleading conduct" and in "the unauthorized distribution of securities."

Some of the principals of Canadian Universal Network Solutions are linked to a vacation club in Woodbridge, Ontario, called Premium Buyers Club.

The official at Fun For Life Vacations, Cecil Hendrix, who had been charged and convicted for misleading consumers, is now selling memberships for a vacation club based out of Barrie, Ontario, called Global Direct Savings VC Canada.

During a visit to a sales presentation in Alliston, Ontario, W5's hidden cameras recorded Hendrix offering cheap travel and discounted goods and services to prospective recruits at a cost of $8,000 per membership. While Hendrix claimed the new travel club would provide reduced rates at several hotel establishments, they told W5 that they had never heard of the club.

Confronted by W5's Victor Malarek, Hendrix first denied that he had been convicted, then insisted that the new vacation club was "great" and "legit".

"It's very difficult to put an end to this type of activity because it is profitable, so they're constantly looking for a new way to continue the activity," said Ric Borski of the BBB.

And though the vacation clubs have re-emerged under new names, Ontario's Ministry of Consumer Services has promised vigilance. "We have taken action in the past, and the Ministry is quite committed to taking action in the future," said Kangalee.

In the end though, it is up to consumers to be watchful, especially when offered trips and vacation club memberships that seem to good to be true. They could end up like Matteo Gironi. In the end, all he got for his $9200 membership with Club Par Excellance was a few coupons for fast food restaurants.

"And I didn't even try using those coupons," he said. "Because what's the point?"