Telephone scam: "$99 vacation"

Many people have received a long-distance call (from various numbers) advising that they have won a 5-day vacation for only $99. The recorded message asks the winner to dial "9" to speak to an operator.

This is a scam. If you receive such a call, hang up and do not press 9. If you do, others will be able to make long-distance calls from your telephone line and charges will be forwarded to your bill.

I've been called several times but just hung up automatically in disgust as I hate spam. Didn't realize there was more to it until someone forwarded me the following URL: http://www.benedictionblogson.com/archives/001197.php, where the info is represented as coming from the RCMP.

This scam depends on avarice and gullibility. Me, I'm a cynic, having "won" a vacation in the past, sat through a sales spiel having been assured no purchase would be required to get the "free" vacation, and yet still walked away with no vacation after the lying-liar-bad-guys finally admitted (using different words) that they had lied to me. Also, I always hang up on recordings as a general principle. If someone wants to talk to me they can do so directly. This is especially true of telemarketers of any ilk, because I need to be speaking to a person so that I can tell them to remove me from their calling list...