6 TEFL Red Flags – avoid getting scammed on your course purchase.

6 TEFL Red Flags that the TEFL course that you are about to purchase may likely be a TEFL certification scam!

1. The company has a Facebook page but has turned off the Reviews tab.

The manipulation of reviews is a massive issue within the TEFL course industry, and this manipulation shows up in many forms:

1. Almost all of the major TEFL review websites are privately owned and earn money via affiliate marketing – meaning that they exist because of backhanders from the TEFL companies that publish reviews. It is, therefore, in the financial interests of those sites to promote positive reviews – whether real or fake – and discreetly hide the negative reviews.
2. Some TEFL programs employ “Brand Ambassadors” to promote their courses – also through affiliate marketing – and these TEFL program minions will write absolutely anything to get you to buy the TEFL course(s) they are promoting. Sometimes the blogger has taken the course and sometimes they have no experience with it whatsoever.
3. Many review websites, such as Trustpilot, charge companies for the pleasure of being listed. Trustpilot is known for its relaxed attitude to not following up and verifying reviews. Some of the well-known companies that have Trustpilot listings take full advantage of this by flooding their listing with fake reviews. Companies listed on Trustpilot also have the option of paying to have poor reviews deleted.
4. There are also TEFL programs that promote negative SEO, by publishing negative reviews online about their business competitors.
5. Facebook (Meta) has recently been messing around (upgrading) with the Pages experience. this means that now you need to be logged into Facebook to view a company’s reviews. On the mobile version, it is difficult to find the Reviews section. Our advice is to log into Facebook, using a laptop, and check whether a program has its Reviews tab turned on or off. If their Reviews tab is turned off, something fishy is going on.

We don’t allow TEFL companies to manipulate their reviews on Trusted TEFL Reviews and we don’t charge TEFL companies anything for listing their programs.

The only advertising allowed is granted to the TEFL program winner of the annual Teachers’ Choice Award. TEFL Online Pro is the winner of this year’s award, so they have been given the opportunity to promote any TEFL course discounts that they may run during the year. This additional exposure on Trusted TEFL Reviews is without charge for the TEFL program currently enjoying Teachers’ Choice Award winner status.

2. The company is falsifying its accreditation status.

There are legitimate international TEFL accreditation bodies, there are questionable international TEFL accreditation bodies, and there are made-up international TEFL accreditation bodies.

Having worked in the TEFL industry for many years now, it is easy for me to be able to distinguish between all three.

Regarding the latter, you can notice these from a mile away because they almost always tend to show generic stock footage photos of businesspeople in boardrooms, wearing suits, and looking very serious about some type of business issue.

The people who run reputable TEFL accreditation bodies don’t hang around all day in boardrooms, wearing business suits.

To save yourself a whole load of wasted time and effort, we strongly recommend that you read the TEFL Accreditation Guide before parting ways with your hard-earned cash:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/tefl-accreditation-guide/

3. Level 5 TEFL courses.

Five years ago, no one had heard of a “Level 5” TEFL course.

You simply chose between an onsite or online TEFL/TESOL/TESL certification course – 120 hours being the industry standard.

Then came along the first few mentions of “Level 5” and more recently it has become very popular to claim that a Level 5 course is the best TEFL course to take.

Employers don’t give two hoots whether you took an over-priced Level 5 TEFL course or not. “Level 5” is just another marketing gimmick – of which there are numerous in this industry.

Employers of teachers online and overseas, and government job visa departments, want to see proof that you have completed a 120-hour TEFL/TESOL certification course.

If you already have teaching experience then a course covering fewer hours will often do, but the industry standard is 120 hours.

Should you wish to, you can also choose a course that adds a practical teaching component to the 120-hour standard regulation – recalculating the total number of hours in the course to a maximum of between 140 and 150.

Any course consisting of more than 120 hours (or between 140-150 hours with the practical teaching component) is unnecessary and won’t, in any way or form, increase your chances of landing a teaching job or getting your work visa.

Also, the Ofqual company that regulates the Level 5 TEFL syllabus – based in the UK – is not an accreditation awarding body. They only regulate the courses. This means that you can pay extra and take a Level 5 TEFL course, but that is no assurance that your certificate will be recognized by online and overseas employers.

It definitely won’t guarantee you better employment prospects over a fully accredited 120-hour TEFL/TESOL course.

In any TEFL job interview situation, it is the 120-hour TEFL/TESOL certification course that you will be asked to provide proof of having taken – i.e., the accepted industry standard.

Our advice is to place less importance on the brand of the TEFL/TESOL qualification and, instead, focus on whether the course is truly internationally recognized.

The vast majority of people reading this article will need to take a 120-hour TEFL/TESOL course to teach English online or overseas.

Take a look at the TEFL Directory for guidance:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/tefl-course-directory/

The top-rated schools in the directory are top-rated for a legitimate reason.

4. The course costs less than $50.

TEFL isn’t rocket science, but it does take relatively thorough training to become a TEFL teacher.

TEFL programs that offer dirt-cheap TEFL courses for under $50 are simply providing you with a piece of paper that says you are a qualified TEFL teacher. Claiming to be a TEFL teacher and having the skills and knowledge to be one are two completely different things.

Our advice is not to go for the cheap TEFL courses.

You should treat your TEFL course as an investment, and not as a shortcut to getting qualified to teach English online or overseas – something you likely won’t be able to do anyway when you invest so little in your online education.

5. TEFL programs that try to undermine the reputation of Trusted TEFL Reviews.

Trusted TEFL Reviews publishes every review that has been proven to come from a reliable source – AKA a real TEFL graduate.

We never delete poor reviews – although we are constantly asked to do so – and some TEFL companies that are so used to manipulating their customer reviews online choose to try and undermine the reputation of Trusted TEFL Reviews when we refuse to delete a poor review, or when we refuse to publish a review that has been written by a TEFL school’s staff member.

We recommend reading the Common TEFL Scams article to learn more about this:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2021/03/30/common-tefl-scams/

6. The TEFL course is free.

We have noticed that a few relatively new online TEFL/TESOL programs are advertising their courses as “free”.

Given that businesses tend to traditionally operate on a business model whereby they create revenue in exchange for services rendered, our attention was piqued by this apparent middle finger to traditional business model marketing.

So, we did a bit of digging around to see how a business could run a profit by offering a free TEFL course.

We conclude that the so-called “free” course is just a front for charging you throughout the course in the form of unexpected, hidden charges.

We also noticed that the free TEFL courses – all of them – are not accredited.

7. Bonus Red Flag: Affiliate Marketing.

The TEFL Affiliate Marketing Scam is a massive issue within the TEFL industry.

These TEFL program sales minions are extremely adept at stretching the truth and creating false narratives.

If you stumble across their website or blog, you will read about how such and such a program (always a program they earn affiliate marketing sales commissions from) is the best choice, and how such and such a program (always a competitor that doesn’t do affiliate marketing) is a scam or just not trustworthy.

If you believe their shtick and enroll in one of the courses that they are promoting, you will likely end up paying for a subpar TEFL course that isn’t fully accredited, and the friendly person recommending the program(s) will stand to earn a sizable sales commission.

No reputable, fully accredited TEFL/TESOL certification course program operates via an affiliate’s marketing campaign model. They just can’t because their accreditation codes of practice don’t allow it.

We recommend reading the TEFL Affiliate Marketing Scam article to learn more about this:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2022/02/07/tefl-affiliate-marketing-scam/

This ‘6 TEFL Red Flags’ article was written by Mia Williams, co-owner of Trusted TEFL Reviews (TTR) | Best Featured TEFL Articles

New! Click here for the online TEFL/TESOL international certification course Teachers’ Choice Award winner. International Online TEFL/TESOL course certification at its best.

Verified Online TEFL/TESOL certification course program reviews, ranked in order of customer satisfaction: TEFL Course Directory

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The post 6 TEFL Red Flags | How To Spot Them appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

TEFL Affiliate Marketing Scam

The TEFL Affiliate Marketing Scam is a massive issue within the TEFL industry.

Every month, thousands of TEFL students get conned out of their hard-earned savings via false advertising and misleading information.

What is affiliate marketing?

“Affiliate marketing is an advertising model in which a company compensates third-party publishers to generate traffic or leads to the company’s products and services. The third-party publishers are affiliates, and the commission fee incentivizes them to find ways to promote the company.” – Investopedia.

This means that in an ideal world, a TEFL graduate promotes the TEFL program they took online (because they genuinely thought it was excellent and useful) and in return, they receive a commission from the TEFL program.

Why is it a scam?

The TEFL industry is highly competitive, with big money to be made from selling and promoting TEFL courses, and this has created a niche market for affiliate marketing.

Because of the large sums of money to be made, bad business practices are the rule rather than the exception.

Some common examples of the TEFL Affiliate Marketing Scam:

1. An affiliate marketer who has never taken a TEFL course wants in on some of the TEFL money. They start promoting one (or more) TEFL courses and to do so they hype up the benefits of taking the TEFL program – such as lying about its accreditation status. The affiliate marketer begins to earn a steady stream of income, but graduates of the program soon discover that the TEFL course and end certificate are not as “internationally recognized” or “amazing” as they were led to believe.

2. An affiliate marketer starts as a genuine TEFL program graduate. They believe in the program that they are promoting, but they could make so much more money if they were to promote other TEFL programs as well. They start promoting more and more TEFL programs, without having any direct experience with those programs, and end up falling into the same moral bankruptcy stage as the affiliate marketer in example (1.) – hyping up TEFL programs with false claims.

3. An affiliate marketer has been promoting various TEFL programs for a while now, but they still have the desire to earn more money. The problem is, that no more TEFL programs are willing to partner with them. They get around this by publishing false and misleading content about the business competition of the programs for which they earn money. This way, the affiliate marketer’s website shows up in the Google search results for the TEFL programs that they are trashing online, and they can convince the new traffic to take one of the courses that they earn an affiliate’s commission instead.

How can I detect whether a website owner is an affiliate marketer?

This is pretty easy to detect.

All affiliate marketers have one thing on their minds: convince you to take a TEFL program that they are going to earn a commission on.

Therefore, you should be EXTREMELY aware of any third-party websites/blogs that promote a TEFL program (or multiple TEFL programs).

Not only will you run a strong risk of purchasing a course that is being falsely advertised, but you will also be inadvertently paying a percentage of your TEFL course fee to the affiliate marketer.

The TEFL programs that are notorious for selling their TEFL courses via affiliate marketers are:

International TEFL Academy | i to i TEFL | MyTEFL | ITTT TEFL | Premier TEFL | The TEFL Academy

None of these TEFL programs is fully accredited, and yet they remain popular TEFL programs – due to the proliferation of their affiliate marketers.

In addition, and something that is a low moral bar, quite a few of the TEFL review websites earn their money via affiliate marketing.

This means that a TEFL reviews website that might appear to be an industry authority, will be deleting negative reviews behind the scenes and allowing fake positive reviews to be published on their site because they earn money from the TEFL programs that they have listed.

Trusted TEFL Reviews has a zero-tolerance policy for affiliate marketing.

There is zero affiliate marketing on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

We don’t allow TEFL companies to manipulate their reviews on Trusted TEFL Reviews, and we don’t charge TEFL companies anything for listing their programs.

The only advertising allowed is granted to the TEFL program winner of the annual Teachers’ Choice Award. TEFL Online Pro is the winner of this year’s award, so they have been allowed to promote any TEFL course discounts that they may run during the year. This additional exposure on Trusted TEFL Reviews is without charge for the TEFL program currently enjoying Teachers’ Choice Award winner status.

Other than this one advertising benefit, no other advertising, in any form, is allowed on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

How can I avoid this scam entirely?

The most reputable TEFL companies (the ones that are fully accredited and internationally recognized) are not known for employing the services of affiliate marketers.

They choose not to largely because they are not allowed to by the accreditation bodies that fully accredit them. It simply isn’t possible for them to risk placing their online marketing in the control of a third-party individual.

Therefore, we don’t recommend purchasing your TEFL course via the TEFL affiliate marketer because you will likely end up investing in a course that is claimed to be “Fully Accredited” but is without fully accredited status.

Trusted TEFL Reviews is an independently run Online TEFL/TESOL reviews website. We are not affiliated, in any way, with any of the Online TEFL/TESOL certification programs listed on this site.

Only the winner of the Teachers’ Choice Award is granted the ability to publish the award on their school website, and they also enjoy a whole year’s free exposure on Trusted TEFL Reviews, where they may post, for example, any current course discounts or promotions on the Trusted TEFL Reviews website.

Can you recommend me a TEFL course to take?

We are asked this question a lot.

Trusted TEFL Reviews is an unbiased TEFL/TESOL certification reviews website and we do not specifically recommend any of the TEFL/TESOL programs listed.

What we do recommend, however, is taking a look at the TEFL Directory for guidance:

The best-rated schools in the directory are top-rated for a legitimate reason.

One final point worth noting

In the TEFL world, there is one individual who is notorious for writing trash about any program or institution that he sees as being an existential threat to his TEFL program livelihood.

His name is Ian Leahy, and he clandestinely runs the ESLinsider TEFL program.

I write “clandestinely” because he tries to portray an image online of being an impartial TEFL expert.

In reality, he is just trying to sell his (unaccredited) TEFL program.

Having already been banned from Facebook, for repeatedly publishing false and misleading content (and having had some of his videos taken down from YouTube) he now resorts to publishing attack articles on his school blog – mirroring the end development stage of the affiliate marketer.

Choose any reputable TEFL program or accreditation website: Ian will have written some outright rubbish about it at some time.

Here is a classic example of ESLinsider at work:

Like the later-stage affiliate marketer, Ian Leahy also does this to drive traffic to his website, where he sells a subpar TEFL program.

Conclusion

Despite the many scams out there, there are a handful or two excellent TEFL/TESOL programs available to take online.

You just need to be aware that the TEFL programs that are not fully accredited are the ones either hyping up their TEFL programs or trashing their competitors.

Trusted TEFL Reviews is one of the few TEFL review websites that will only publish verified TEFL student/graduate reviews. We also never delete a review – even if a TEFL program tries its best to have it deleted.

The result of this is that we tend to be favored by reputable TEFL programs, and singled out for “special treatment” by the less reputable ones.

One of the classic moves by a less reputable TEFL program, when they are notified that a review will not be deleted, is to try and reduce the credibility of Trusted TEFL Reviews.

They hope, by doing so, that people will be less inclined to believe their bad review(s).

Therefore, a final tip is to be extremely skeptical of any TEFL program that goes out of its way – often via an affiliate marketer – to try and discredit Trusted TEFL Reviews.

Over the years, we have seen how some TEFL programs have tried to spread the false info that we are owned by such and such a TEFL program.

So far (and I have been counting) it has been claimed that we are owned by 7 separate TEFL programs.

Trusted TEFL Reviews is in no way affiliated or connected with, or owned by, any of the TEFL programs listed on trustedteflreviews.com.

If a TEFL program is rated high, they are rated so because of genuine (verified) customer feedback.

If a TEFL program is rated low, they are rated so because of genuine (verified) customer feedback.

This TEFL Affiliate Marketing Scam article has been written by Mia Williams – co-owner of trustedteflreviews.com

Essential TEFL Tip!

Are you worried about being scammed? TEFL course scams are becoming more sophisticated.

Protect yourself from TEFL scams.

We strongly recommend choosing from one of the 5 Best Online TEFL/TESOL certification course programs in 2026:

The 5 Best Online TEFL/TESOL Courses in 2026

By choosing from one of the 5 Best Online TEFL/TESOL Certification Course Programs, you are guaranteed not to be scammed.

Choose a fully accredited and internationally recognized online TEFL/TESOL certification course that you can use for all online and abroad teaching English jobs.

Mia Williams – Trusted TEFL Reviews

New! Click here for the online TEFL/TESOL international certification course Teachers’ Choice Award winner. International Online TEFL/TESOL course certification at its best.

Verified Online TEFL/TESOL certification course program reviews, ranked in order of customer satisfaction: TEFL Course Directory

TEFL Accreditation Guide | 6 TEFL Red Flags | TTR Home | TEFL Course Special Offers

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4 Worst TEFL Courses 2026, written by Mia Williams – co-founder of Trusted TEFL Reviews.

December 8, 2025 Notice:

It has been brought to our attention that ITTT TEFL, My TEFL, and TTA The TEFL Academy have been offering their TEFL graduates free “bonus” courses (which are worthless) in return for writing a positive review on their Facebook pages and on the other review websites where they have hundreds of positive reviews.

This is the reason why ITTT TEFL, My TEFL, and TTA The TEFL Academy have such awful reviews on trustedteflreviews.com and amazing reviews on other platforms. This is a scam.

There are some excellent Online TEFL/TESOL certification course options out there, and there are some that you should avoid.

The best Online TEFL/TESOL certification courses come with excellent support and offer certificates that are Fully Accredited and internationally recognized.

The worst Online TEFL/TESOL certification courses lack sufficient student support and lack international recognition.

Here are the 4 worst TEFL courses in 2026, in all their upside down glory – starting at the 4th worst and continuing down to the worst of the worst:

4. ITTT International TEFL and TESOL Training

There are a few stand-out issues with the ITTT TEFL program:

1. It employs aggressive affiliate marketers that hype up the course on platforms such as Quora. The most prolific of these is Linda Dunsmore – Marketing Manager at (yep, you guessed right) ITTT. Linda spams Quora with helpful posts about how she was an ITTT graduate and how the course worked for her. What she doesn’t come clean about, though, is that she is on the ITTT management marketing team.
2. ITTT doesn’t just have one program website. Instead, it has more than 10 of them. They all look similar, but each contains slightly different claims and each looks different enough that the waters are muddied when it comes to pinpointing the true identity of the core company website.
3. ITTT is a company headquartered in Thailand, and they are accredited by some pretty dodgy accreditation companies. One of these is OTTSA, and another is The Teacher Training Council. Both are registered in Thailand, and both have been exposed as fake accreditation websites. The Teacher Training Council can’t even spell “Accreditation” correctly. They spell it, “AccrediDation”.

ITTT International TEFL and TESOL Training is Accredited but is not Fully Accredited.

You can read further information about ITTT, including verified customer reviews, in the Trusted TEFL Reviews ITTT TEFL category: https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/ittt/

3. MyTEFL

MyTEFL exploded into the Online TEFL training arena about 5 or 6 years ago.

It claims to have been around for a lot longer, but 5 or 6 years is a more realistic and honest assessment.

Students tend to like the course.

That’s where the positives end.

1. MyTEFL is propped up by a fake accreditation body ( Online TESOL and TEFL Standards Agency – OTTSA) and another one that they recently created: the International TEFL Accreditation Council – ITEFLAC. New! MyTEFL is now also “accredited” by the International Council for Online Educational Standards (ICOES). ICOES also accredits such bastions of international education including, but not limited to, ‘Permanent Jewelry Bestie’ and ‘spray tan class’.
2. Graduates regularly complain that they were ripped off by bait-and-switch scams on the job placements abroad that they accepted through MyTEFL and its parent company, Footprints Language Education Ltd. Teachers arrived to find that the accommodation and pay weren’t as promised, and some discovered that a percentage of their monthly salary was being deducted and paid back to MyTEFL/Footprints Language Education Ltd.
3. MyTEFL has tried to have fake reviews published on Trusted TEFL Reviews and reacted very poorly when we refused to publish these unverified “customer” reviews. Its response was to launch a campaign against us, claiming that this review website is biased toward certain TEFL programs. They even went so far as to claim that Trusted TEFL Reviews is owned by OISE University of Toronto TEFL and/or TEFL Online Pro. Yep, the true sign of a reputable company is to attack the reviews site that refused to publish its fake “customer” reviews.

MyTEFL is Accredited but is not Fully Accredited.

You can read further information about MyTEFL, including verified customer reviews, in the Trusted TEFL Reviews MyTEFL category: https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/mytefl-blacklisted-warning/

2. TTA The TEFL Academy

This company is a car crash waiting to happen, so go grab your popcorn and a comfy couch.

TTA The TEFL Academy claims to be “Fully Accredited” by a few organizations, with one of these being DEAC.

We sent out an inquiry to DEAC yesterday, and they responded that TTA The TEFL Academy is not accredited by them.

The helpful people at DEAC directed us to a page on their website, where the public can check whether a TEFL program is listed in their database.

Here is that link: https://www.deac.org/Student-Center/Directory-Of-Accredited-Institutions.aspx

1. TTA The TEFL Academy claims to be accredited by AQC, DEAC, QUALIFI, and even by Ofqual. It is accredited by no company. It is only regulated by Ofqual and QUALIFI, and it also appears that QUALIFI might have been created by the good folks at TTA The TEFL Academy.
2. TTA the TEFL Academy has tried to have its staff-written reviews published on Trusted TEFL Reviews. Last year, one of its full-time Brand Ambassador employees became infuriated with me because I wouldn’t publish her review that read like a TTA TEFL brochure. What was her response? She said that Trusted TEFL Reviews is biased and began writing rubbish about me and my reviews site online. Oh, and, of course, she claims that Trusted TEFL Reviews is owned by TEFL Online Pro because it is the top-rated program on this site currently. And all because we wouldn’t publish her review.
3. Despite having its headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, TTA The TEFL Academy certificates are not recognized for English teaching jobs in Ireland. In Malta neither. The one place where you are guaranteed to be able to use your TTA The TEFL Academy certificate is in the UK. Reviewers have complained about not being able to use their TTA The TEFL Academy certificates for some online teaching jobs and some overseas jobs.
4. TTA The TEFL Academy aggressively promotes itself through a network of affiliate marketers – people who may or may not have taken one of its courses. These marketing minions earn a 20% referral fee every time someone books a TTA The TEFL Academy course through their affiliate website. This is one of the reasons why we feel that TTA The TEFL Academy courses are overpriced.

TTA The TEFL Academy is Unaccredited. It is neither Accredited nor Fully Accredited.

The TEFL Academy, via its network of Brand Ambassadors, aggressively pushes the notion that it is fully accredited and aggressively pushes the notion that some of the reputable organizations that are competitors are Fully Accredited are, in fact, fake. I hear defamation lawsuit bells ringing!

You can read further information about TTA The TEFL Academy, including verified customer reviews, in the Trusted TEFL Reviews The TEFL Academy category: https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/the-tefl-academy/

1. ESLinsider

The popcorn and couch time might have already passed with this program because our research has shown that ESLinsider is not a full-time-functioning TEFL program anymore.

I spent a lazy Sunday searching through the many Reddit user names of the owner of ESLinsider TEFL (Ian Patrick Leahy) and I read how he returned from Japan to New Hampshire because his website wasn’t doing so well. In the two years since then, Ian has worked on ski and snowboarding slopes in New Hampshire and Montana.

It appears that he is now planning on working a summer season this year in Oregon.

I also read some of Ian’s Reddit questions – enquiring about traveling to either Chile or New Zealand for under-the-table paid work.

Why does ESLinsider come in at number 1 for the worst TEFL courses in 2026?

1. Ian Patrick Leahy began the ESLinsider TEFL program because he hated teaching English and wanted to earn a quick buck by running online TEFL courses, which he called TEKA courses. The problem was that he didn’t have enough experience or knowledge to even teach, never mind running a training program. This didn’t deter Ian and he soldiered on, creating linguistic minefield disasters as his objective grew.
2. He was clever in one respect. He created a blog for ESLinsider, where he tried to convey the impression that he was an ESL expert. He also “reviewed” his competitor’s TEFL programs (which he never even paid and took) and wrote critical feedback on them – all the while linking back to his blog and to his ESLinsider course. This meant that you could Google any well-known Online TEFL program and you would see ESLinsider’s take on it. The obvious reason for spending so much of his time doing this was that he hoped to convince people that his TEFL course was better and that they should pay him to take his course. His MO is to claim that such and such a course or person is a “scam”, “fake”, “fraud”, etc. He also went after reputable accreditation bodies – after all, his courses were unaccredited so he had to try and angle it that accreditation bodies are all fake.
3. Ian (ESLinsider) was the first TEFL program that we received a fake review and it was the first time that a TEFL program retaliated against us for not publishing its fake review. Ian Patrick Leahy from ESLinsider was the person who began the misinformation that Trusted TEFL Reviews is biased and owned by CIEE TEFL, OISE University of Toronto TEFL, and TEFL Online Pro. Of course, this is not true.
4. He is also alleged to have conned his paying customers out of their money. This is one example of a group of Ian Patrick Leahy’s ESLinsider TEFL students, who were left out of pocket by Ian:

ESLinsider is Unaccredited. It is neither Accredited nor Fully Accredited.

You can read further information about ESLinsider, including verified customer reviews, in the Trusted TEFL Reviews ESLinsider category: https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/eslinsider-tefl/

Our Tip!

To avoid falling victim to a TEFL scam, check how high or low a program is ranked in the TEFL Course Directory: https://trustedteflreviews.com/tefl-course-directory/

The top-rated schools in the directory are top-rated for a legitimate reason.

You can also check the TEFL Accreditation Guide, to see which organizations provide Fully Accredited certificates: https://trustedteflreviews.com/tefl-accreditation-guide/

Worst TEFL Courses 2026 related links:

ITTT TEFL Accreditation: https://trustedteflreviews.com/2022/03/23/ittt-tefl-accreditation/

TTA The TEFL Academy Scam Warning: https://trustedteflreviews.com/2019/03/25/the-tefl-academy-certification-review/

The MyTEFL Scam: https://trustedteflreviews.com/2020/01/24/the-mytefl-com-scam/

The ESLinsider Scam: https://trustedteflreviews.com/2020/02/03/eslinsider-reviews-scam/

Affiliate Marketing Scam: https://trustedteflreviews.com/2022/02/07/tefl-affiliate-marketing-scam/

December 1st, 2025 Update:

World TESOL Academy must also be added to this Worst TEFL Courses 2026 list:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/world-tesol-academy/

New! Click here for the online TEFL/TESOL international certification course Teachers’ Choice Award winner. International Online TEFL/TESOL course certification at its best.

Verified Online TEFL/TESOL certification course program reviews, ranked in order of customer satisfaction: Courses Directory

The post 4 Worst TEFL Courses 2026 appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

ESLinsider and Ian Leahy Blacklisted Warning!

TEFL/TESOL in Japan scam ESLinsider / ESLinsider review, submitted by Trusted TEFL Reviews.

TEFL/TESOL in Japan scam – Ian Leahy.

We don’t find any pleasure in blacklisting an Online TEFL/TESOL certification school, but ESLinsider/Ian Leahy has now reached that threshold.

ESLinsider is owned and run by Ian Leahy.

Ian Leahy is a US citizen, currently living in Fukuoka, Japan, and he is also currently being investigated by the Chinese authorities for fraud.

Essential TEFL Tip!

Are you worried about being scammed? TEFL course scams are becoming more sophisticated!

Protect yourself by reading about the latest TEFL scams in this article:

Online TEFL/TESOL Course Review Scams in 2026

If you are concerned about becoming a victim of an Online TEFL/TESOL course scam, we strongly recommend choosing from one of the 5 Best Online TEFL/TESOL certification course programs in 2025:

The 5 Best Online TEFL/TESOL Courses in 2026

Mia Williams – Trusted TEFL Reviews

A snippet from the (documented) accusation:

‘After some deliberation, we have decided to warn all the foreigners now teaching in China that if you sent an email to eslinsider.com or even visited their website more than once over the last 6 months, you will soon be investigated by the Chinese PSB as we recently found out in an unexpected interview we obtained with a veteran Captain who has worked more than 8 years with the PSB in a Tier 1 city of China.’

Further information can be read here:

ESLinsider/Ian Leahy TEFL/TESOL scam

Since earlier this year, ESLinsider has consistently tried to undermine the credibility of trustedteflreviews.com by posting misleading materials, on various online platforms.

Such platforms include the ESLinsider.com school website, Ian Leahy’s YouTube/Vimeo channel, Reddit.com, and Quora.com.

For the past 6 months, Ian Leahy has made claims that trustedteflreviews.com is owned and run by the following Online TEFL/TESOL certification programs:

CIEE TEFL
ICAL TEFL
Maximo Nivel TEFL
OISE University of Toronto TEFL
TEFL Online Pro

What do all 5 of these Online TEFL/TESOL certification programs have in common?

They have all featured in the top 5 ranked Online TEFL/TESOL certification schools list since the start of this year.

Online TEFL TESOL Courses Reviews

trustedteflreviews.com is an independently run Online TEFL/TESOL certification course program reviews website. We are not affiliated with any Online TEFL/TESOL certification course program(s).

trustedteflreviews.com was started by myself and a bunch of other English teachers, who were fed up with the amount of Online TEFL/TESOL misinformation published online.

If an Online TEFL/TESOL certification course program is ranked high in the list of certification programs, this means that they have received overwhelmingly positive (verified) customer feedback.

If an Online TEFL/TESOL certification course program is ranked low in the list of certification programs, this means that they have received overwhelmingly negative (verified) customer feedback.

ESLinsider is currently ranked bottom of the list and has featured in the bottom 5 for the past 9 months.

Instead of being focused on improving the course experience for his customers, Ian Leahy has chosen to lash out at trustedteflreviews.com with a barrage of misleading materials that he has published online.

Ian Leahy might sound convincing, he might even appear credible, but he is driven by one desire: the desire to work as little as possible whilst earning as much money as he possibly can to fuel his lifestyle.

He has been called out on this behavior before – type ESLinsider Asia Scam or Ian Leahy Asia Scam into Google.

Taking into account all of the above information, ESLinsider will now be listed on trustedteflreviews.com with a blacklisted warning. This will go into effect from today.

Mia Williams

Read more ESLinsider reviews

New! Click here for the online TEFL/TESOL international certification course Teachers’ Choice Award winner. International Online TEFL/TESOL course certification at its best.

Verified Online TEFL/TESOL certification course program reviews, ranked in order of customer satisfaction: TEFL Course Directory

TEFL Accreditation Guide | 6 TEFL Red Flags | TTR Home | TEFL Course Special Offers

The post ESLinsider / Ian Leahy Blacklisted Warning! appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

A notice to the “TEFL Group”.

Dear “TEFL Group”

If you persist in trying to smear trustedteflreviews.com online, then we at trustedteflreviews.com will need to add further blacklist warnings.

You began by making crazy accusations that trustedteflreviews.com is run by tefl online pro – I imagine because they won the Teachers’ Choice Award last year – and we have now read online that you are now claiming that it is the University of Toronto TEFL who are the masterminds behind the creation of trustedteflreviews.com because they are currently, on the day of publishing this article, the top-rated Online TEFL course on trustedteflreviews.com.

This is the final time that I am going to waste my time, defending your bitter and absurd accusations.

trustedteflreviews.com is an independent, Online TEFL reviews website – set up by myself (Mia Williams) and a couple of fellow teachers, where we reside in Vienna, Austria. That’s in Europe

We fully understand that you must be uncomfortable seeing (some) negative reviews of your Online TEFL course programs published on trustedteflreviews.com, but we are only the messenger.

We publish verified customer reviews, written by real people.

Unlike many of the other Online TEFL review websites, we never delete a positive or negative review, unless it has raised a red flag and then been proven to have been fake.

Therefore, all reviews listed on trustedteflreviews.com are real reviews, sent in to us, and then published in your school categories.

trustedteflreviews.com is an unbiased online TEFL course review website.

We are not affiliated, in any way, with any of the online TEFL programs that we list on our site.

If an online TEFL school receives more positive reviews than negative reviews, it means they are doing something right. If an online TEFL school receives more negative reviews than positive reviews, it means they are doing something wrong and they should focus on improving their product and services.

And on a slightly unrelated note: thank you, for skyrocketing our website visitor statistics.

Mia Williams

Essential TEFL Tip!

Are you worried about being scammed? TEFL course scams are becoming more sophisticated!

Protect yourself by reading about the latest TEFL scams in this article:

Online TEFL/TESOL Course Review Scams in 2026

If you are concerned about becoming a victim of an Online TEFL/TESOL course scam, we strongly recommend choosing from one of the 5 Best Online TEFL/TESOL certification course programs in 2025:

The 5 Best Online TEFL/TESOL Courses in 2026

Mia Williams – Trusted TEFL Reviews

Read more Online TEFL Course Scams

New! Click here for the online TEFL/TESOL international certification course Teachers’ Choice Award winner. International Online TEFL/TESOL course certification at its best.

Verified Online TEFL/TESOL certification course program reviews, ranked in order of customer satisfaction: TEFL Course Directory

TEFL Accreditation Guide | 6 TEFL Red Flags | TTR Home | TEFL Course Special Offers

The post “A notice to the “TEFL Group” appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.