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Online TEFL TESOL course review scams in 2026.

(Updated: December 21, 2025)

This is a must-read article if you are choosing which TEFL course to take and are confused by which ones are legitimate and which ones are scams.

The scams are becoming more and more sophisticated.

To prevent your TEFL dream turning into a TEFL nightmare, we strongly recommend that you read this article in full.

Online TEFL TESOL Scam TEFL programs.

Currently, the more notable scam TEFL companies are ESLinsider, ITTT International TEFL and TESOL Training, MyTEFL, The TEFL Academy, and World TESOL Academy.

1. ESLinsider

ESLinsider (Ian Patrick Leahy) portrays himself as a TEFL whistleblower and he trashes almost every TEFL program online for seemingly altruistic motives, but his endgame is to sell you one TEFL course – his TEFL course. Among a long list of criminal activity, he was recommending TEFL students without college degrees to buy fake ones online. Some people followed his advice and (in China) were arrested, fined, deported. Ian is currently wanted by the Chinese authorities and is essentially on the lamb, living a transient life in the United States. Ian was banned from Facebook for spreading misinformation and disinformation way back in 2017. https://www.eslinsider.com/

2. ITTT International TEFL and TESOL Training

ITTT International TEFL and TESOL Training operates under more than 20 different websites. Each one looks similar, but is different just enough so that you would be forgiven into believing that one website is a different company from another website. This company has a bogus accreditation from a website that spells it as “Accredidation”. Affiliate marketing is their lean and they have one favorite who will say and write anything to get you to make the purchase: Linda Dunsmore. ITTT will take your money, give you access to a subpar course, fail to respond to online tutor requests, and ghost you when it comes time for the advertised “free” job-finding help – unless you pay through the nose for their job placement services, which you are recommended to avoid like the plague.

3. MyTEFL

MyTEFL used to be accredited by OTTSA (a website they created) and are now accredited by a bogus company: International TEFL Accreditation Council (ITEFLAC). Folks, official accreditation company website’s don’t have stock images of business people in office boardrooms. MyTEFL offer affordable TEFL courses, but they make their real money from paid job placement services. Do not pay for this service. If you do, when you receive your weekly or monthly teaching pay, without realizing it at first, MyTEFL will be skimming up to 25% off. And what can you do about it when you have locked yourself into a job contract with a language school through MyTEFL? https://mytefl.com/

4. The TEFL Academy (TTA)

The TEFL Academy (TTA) is a truly corrupt corporate company. They claim to be the “Worlds #1 TEFL Course Provider!” They are not. And, despite their many claims, they are not accredited. The TEFL Academy claims to be accredited by AQC, DEAC, QUALIFI, and even by Ofqual. It is only regulated by Ofqual and QUALIFI, and it also appears that QUALIFI might have been created by the good folks at The TEFL Academy. AQC is a sister website of DEAC, and you can see that The TEFL Academy is not accredited by DEAC because DEAC has a search feature that shows all the companies that it accredits – The TEFL Academy is not listed. As with ITTT, The TEFL Academy pays affiliate marketers to promote its courses. More about this below. https://www.theteflacademy.com/

5. World TESOL Academy

World TESOL Academy is likewise shady as hell. They offer TEFL courses for $38 and this appears to lure in a lot of unsuspecting folk. After you pay, you get bombarded with requests to become one of their affiliate marketers. Students rate the course as “terrible” and a bit like flying with Ryanair, with a smorgasbord of hidden fees and additional costs. World TESOL Academy is accredited by Accreditat and CPD that are pay-for-accreditation companies that are not recognized by any reputable language schools. Another red flag is that they have the Reviews tab disabled on their Facebook page. https://www.worldtesolacademy.com/

How TEFL companies scam you.

Besides the above mentioned scams, there are some complex ways in which some TEFL companies will scam you.

And the sophistication of the scams is intensifying.

TEFL Review Website Bedfellows

Go Abroad, Go Overseas and TEFL Course Review are the three biggest TEFL review websites. They each make their money from charging TEFL companies for a listing on their site – the TEFL companies are their customers – and it is in their best financial interests to have positive reviews about (fill in the blank) TEFL company than to have bad reviews published. This is why a company like The TEFL Academy has a high review score on all three websites – they make certain that negative reviews of them are minimized and they are free to have fake positive reviews appear on all three sites, and on the other review sites where they have a listing. Incidentally, The TEFL Academy has a lot of money at their disposal and frequently sue individuals and companies if they dare to publish something negative about them. Trusted TEFL Reviews published a few negative student reviews of The TEFL Academy and we were warned that if they were not taken down, they would sue us. We simply responded that the reviews will remain published because they were written by students of their program.

Affiliate Marketing

If you see an individual excessively promoting a TEFL program – with or without a coupon code for a discount – it will certainly be an affiliate marketer. Caitriona McTiernan and Megan Broccoli are the two main ones for The TEFL Academy and Linda Dunsmore heads the ITTT affiliate marketing side of the business. A large majority of TEFL programs belong to affiliate marketing companies, paying people who have never taken their courses to promote them online and earn money for themselves in the process. They will say and write absolutely anything (“the course was AMAZING!”) to make the sell, such as promises of earning $100 per hour for teaching English online. No one earns anywhere near to $100 teaching English online.

Trashing A Business Competitor

In the Wild West of online TEFL, anything goes. It’s very common for TEFL companies to trash each other online. They create fake profiles and then write fake complaints and fake reviews – misinformation and disinformation – on complaints websites and Reddit. And TEFL programs with deep pockets, such as The TEFL Academy, have now started to pay people to take a competitor’s course and then slam it online. This is cruel and clever because the person can show that they have a certificate from the TEFL company and can write exactly what the company tells them to write. A recent case involved one of the affiliate marketers from The TEFL Academy – Megan Broccoli – who purchased a TEFL Online Pro course, completed it, claimed after an hour of course completion that she couldn’t use the certificate, and began spreading her message on Reddit and elsewhere that the company is a scam. Something similar also happened to OISE University of Toronto TEFL and CIEE TEFL. CIEE TEFL, OISE University of Toronto TEFL and TEFL Online Pro are among the 5 Best Online TEFL/TESOL certification courses.

Reddit

When Online TEFL/TESOL courses were gaining traction about 15 years ago, in response to the established in-person TEFL/TESOL course industry, a few of them set up Reddit communities – communities that they used and continue to use to push their agenda. This tends to focus on trashing their competitors and clandestinely promoting their courses. We recommend avoiding Reddit for Online TEFL/TESOL course information because of this, and because of the vast number of TEFL shills active on the site.

Niche subreddits, such as online course communities, are often run by people with a vested interest in promoting certain courses—for which they receive a financial kickback. This often leads them to delete positive comments about any business competitors of the courses from which they receive kickbacks.

The r/TEFL subreddit is well known for this type of behavior—they allow positive comments for their favored TEFL companies but prevent students of some other TEFL programs from posting honest reviews of their course experiences. They even have a Reddit Wiki page that clearly demonstrates the quid pro quo partnership they maintain with certain programs.

Trashing Trusted TEFL Reviews

It must be so frustrating for the many TEFL programs that don’t have the kind of power over Trusted TEFL Reviews that they lord over other TEFL review websites. So what do they do? They spread misinformation and disinformation about me and Trusted TEFL Reviews because they just can’t handle having even one or two negative reviews published online about them. By trying to discredit this website, they hope that people won’t believe the reviews of their program. All TEFL programs listed on Trusted TEFL Reviews have a free listing and all TEFL programs are free to respond to reviews and to add comments.

The TEFL Wall of Shame.

Important Clarifying Information.

Several points need addressing, and I will write about each one separately:

The Teachers’ Choice Award

Several Online TEFL companies are claiming that the Teachers’ Choice Award is fake. It isn’t. We created the Teachers’ Choice Award back in 2019, after noticing that other mainstream TEFL review websites had also created their awards. The fundamental difference between our award and the awards of other mainstream TEFL review websites is that the winner of the Teachers’ Choice Award is based on merit alone – voted for by language schools, universities, TEFL students, and TEFL graduates. If a company has won an award from a mainstream TEFL review website, it means they have likely paid for the privilege of “winning” that award.

TEFL Online Pro

TEFL Online Pro (https://teflonlinepro.com/) has won the Teachers’ Choice Award for seven consecutive years – they are the highest-rated in 2026. They have won the award every year because they were the Online TEFL/TESOL program that received the most votes. Trusted TEFL Reviews does not own TEFL Online Pro, just as it doesn’t own the other four Online TEFL/TESOL programs that currently hold the place of being one of the 5 Best Online TEFL/TESOL programs. Trusted TEFL Reviews is an independent Online TEFL/TESOL reviews website. We are not affiliated with any TEFL/TESOL program listed on the Trusted TEFL Reviews website.

Trusted TEFL Reviews is a not-for-profit website

Contrary to what some Online TEFL programs claim, it doesn’t cost anything to list your Online TEFL/TESOL program on Trusted TEFL Reviews. Also, we don’t allow any paid advertising because we feel that it could present a conflict of interest. The only advertising allowed is granted to the TEFL program winner of the annual Teachers’ Choice Award. TEFL Online Pro (https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/tefl-online-pro-reviews-in-2025/) 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.

I am not a man

I identify as a woman because I am a woman, living and teaching English in Vienna, Austria. Contrary to what some Online TEFL/TESOL companies have written about me online, I am not a “man”, I am not a “dyke”, and I am not a “b!tch”. I am a mother. I co-own Trusted TEFL Reviews with my partner and we run Trusted TEFL Reviews together, from our apartment in Vienna. We also have a small office within the city limits that we visit mostly during the summer months when the air-con in the office is a welcome respite. We also run the Teachers’ Choice Award from this office. It is no Online TEFL/TESOL program’s beeswax what our addresses are and we both feel safer not disclosing our addresses. I have received threats in the past simply because I wouldn’t delete a negative review written about one of the TEFL programs listed on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

We never delete reviews from Trusted TEFL Reviews, unless the review is later found to be fake

Online TEFL/TESOL course programs are the customers of the mainstream Online TEFL/TESOL review websites. The programs pay a yearly fee to be listed on the review website, and this is how those review websites generate the majority of their commercial income. Those review websites have a strong financial incentive to hide negative reviews and hold almost no verification process for publishing positive reviews – the vast majority of which are written by the TEFL company. Trusted TEFL Reviews has a strong verification process in place and we only publish reviews that have been proven to have been written by a real TEFL student. This has infuriated a few Online TEFL/TESOL companies – companies that are used to chalking up fake 5-star reviews on those mainstream TEFL review platforms.

We allow all of the TEFL companies listed on Trusted TEFL Reviews to respond to reviews

All Online TEFL/TESOL companies listed on Trusted TEFL Reviews are free to respond to any review published about their program. The vast majority of programs choose not to, but some do. The most prolific company to respond to reviews – responding to every review they receive – is TEFL Online Pro. This company is proactive and recognizes the importance of thanking customers for writing positive reviews and addressing any issues presented by negative reviews. If an Online TEFL company writes that they tried responding to a review but were unsuccessful in doing so, it is a flat-out lie.

Russian review websites

A few months ago, an Online TEFL/TESOL company reached out to me – a company not listed on Trusted TEFL Reviews – complaining that their business wasn’t doing so well. They blamed their dwindling revenue on the many cheap Online TEFL/TESOL programs undercutting them with lower prices. They suggested that they would “handle the Google Ads campaigns” of those programs through a process known as click fraud. They also suggested that I should write some damning reviews about those programs on complaintsboard.com. I refused the offer and told the individual to focus on improving their course offerings and customer services. complaintsboard.com, dirtyscam.com, and ripoffreport.com are all Russian-owned websites. They may claim otherwise, but they operate outside of countries where they can be held accountable for the defamatory material that they allow to be published on their websites. I read one recent “complaint” that TEFL Online Pro is offering courses illegally and not paying their taxes. This, of course, is just fiction. I also read another “complaint” where someone had written that OISE University of Toronto TEFL is a scam and their certificates are not valid internationally. Also, fictitious. The rogue Online TEFL/TESOL companies use these websites to badmouth their business competitors because all you need to do to have your review published is to verify your email address – using any name to create an account. Those Russian websites feel protected from legal repercussions and they are the go-to websites for the dregs of the Online TEFL/TESOL certification course world.

TEFL companies that want to take over the world

The TEFL Academy (https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/the-tefl-academy/) is the perfect example of a company that wants it all, and they are willing to break all the better business rules to achieve their objective. We began listing this program on Trusted TEFL Reviews a few years ago. Within a couple of days, we received an avalanche of 5-star reviews for them, but not one of the reviewers was willing to prove course participation in The TEFL Academy program. They were fake reviews. We also have it on good word that this company reaches out to its graduates and offers them a free mini TEFL course if they write a positive review. This is why there is such a disconnect between their reviews on Trusted TEFL Reviews and their reviews on Facebook, Trustpilot, etc. World TESOL Academy (https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/world-tesol-academy/) is also guilty of this shameless and flagrant middle finger to the better business rules. They claim to be the “Worlds #1 TEFL Course Provider.” This obviously isn’t true, as are many other claims on their website.

Our advice for Online TEFL/TESOL companies

Interact with your customers! If you receive a positive review, thank the customer for spending their time to review your program. If you receive a negative review, apologize and try to right a wrong. Don’t write false sh*t about me or Trusted TEFL Reviews just because you got some negative feedback.

Our advice for Online TEFL/TESOL students

The Online TEFL/TESOL industry is unregulated and highly competitive. Some companies will swear blind to you that you need to take their course because it has more hours or because it has won so many awards. The Teachers’ Choice Award is the only Online TEFL/TESOL certification course program award that cannot be bought. The industry standard is a 120-hour TEFL/TESOL certification course (140 hours if it includes 20 teaching practice hours). You don’t need more training hours because those extra hours are meaningless for TEFL employers. If you pay less than US$100 for a 120-hour Online TEFL/TESOL certification course, you WILL regret it.

Accreditation

To prevent you from becoming a victim of a TEFL scam, we recommend that you choose a Fully Accredited TEFL/TESOL certification course provider.

The most well-known accreditation companies – offering Full Accreditation:

ACCET – Accrediting Council for Continuing Education and Training.

ACTEFLC – Accreditation Council for Teaching English as a Foreign Language Courses.

OISE – University of the Toronto Faculty of Education.

TESL Canada

University of Cambridge’s English Language Assessment

If you read anything negative about these organizations online, it has been written by an Online TEFL/TESOL program – a program that likely has no accreditation itself or one that simply pays a dodgy accreditation company an annual fee.

You can see which companies are Fully Accredited and internationally recognized by looking through the program listings 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.

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

Be smart. Don’t fall for the disinformation and misinformation.

Trusted TEFL Reviews

If and when we are notified of shady practices or even outright scams, we will post details of them in the Online TEFL Course Scams section of this website.

This ‘Online TEFL Course Reviews Scams’ article was originally written and published by Mia Williams, co-owner of Trusted TEFL Reviews (TTR) | Best Featured TEFL Articles

Related articles:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2021/03/30/6-tefl-red-flags/

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2021/03/30/common-tefl-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 Online TEFL TESOL Course Review Scams in 2026 appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

ESLinsider Warning.

This is yet another warning about the ESLinsider TEFL program.

ESLinsider is run by Ian Patrick Leahy.

Almost every single TEFL program that I have spoken to has said that Ian Leahy is a public menace.

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 2025

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 2025

Mia Williams – Trusted TEFL Reviews

Why is Ian Leahy from ESLinsider a public menace?

Here are ten reasons why:

1. Ian advised TEFL teachers to teach in China without a college degree or with a fake college degree. A direct result of this poor advice was the imprisonment and subsequent deportation of some TEFL teachers in China.
2. The authorities in China have placed ESLinsider/Ian Leahy on a blacklist. If Ian were to travel to China, he would be arrested and imprisoned.
3. Ian is accused of fraud- stealing the credit card details of some of his customers and using that money for his purchases.
4. Ian’s ESLinsider TEFL course is not accredited and its certificate is not recognized by any reputable English companies or schools.
5. ESLinsider/Ian Leahy was banned from Facebook (2017 onwards) for shilling his program, spamming, and spreading TEFL conspiracy theories.
6. Ian’s ESLinsider business model has a zero budget for paid advertising and marketing. Instead, Ian writes trash about the main players in TEFL. He does this to increase his online footprint and net new customers this way.
7. Fake reviews. Ian writes fake 5-star reviews for his TEFL program.
8. False identities. Ian has numerous identities online. He uses these to attack the main players in TEFL and uses them to shill his TEFL program.
9. Ian Leahy moved back to the USA last year (from Japan) because his ESLinsider TEFL program went bankrupt. He has spent the past winter working on the ski slopes in Idaho/Montana, and this summer Ian is working at a lodge in Oregon.
10. We tracked down some of Ian’s alter egos on Reddit (fake accounts) and saw that he was asking about how to find under-the-table paid work in either Chile or New Zealand.

The following is a heart-breaking first-hand account of the real-world effects of being scammed by ESLinsider/Ian Leahy.

In the period when this account took place, Ian Leahy was falsely claiming that he was a respectable UK-based recruiter for English teachers in Asia.

ESLinsider scams its TEFL customers and also scams other TEFL programs, accreditation bodies, and TEFL review websites.

Ian writes trash about every single TEFL program, about every single accreditation body, and about every single TEFL review website.

He knows that when he does this, his ESLinsider website shows up in the organic Google search for that particular TEFL program, accreditation body, or TEFL review website.

He then hopes to convince people who are new to TEFL that his TEFL course is worth purchasing.

Trusted TEFL Reviews has always responded to any online attacks from Ian Leahy, by simply using Ian’s words against him.

This Trusted TEFL Reviews ESLinsider article is an excellent example:

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

Our ESLinsider warning is something that you should take seriously, to avoid being scammed by Ian Leahy.

Many organizations and individuals have issued their ESLinsider warnings.

ESLinsider/Ian Leahy is a menace to the public.

Buyer beware!

This ‘ESLinsider Warning’ article was written by Mia Williams, Trusted TEFL Reviews co-owner.

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 Warning appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

ESLinsider | A Warning for all TEFL/TESOL students and graduates.

We don’t like to issue warnings but there are times when we feel that we have to.

These times are when Trusted TEFL Reviews feels that it is in the public interest to issue a warning.

This is such a time.

ESLinsider is all over the internet.

For those of you who don’t know, ESLinsider is a blog and a TEFL program operated by a guy from Monroe, New Hampshire.

His name is Ian Patrick Leahy.

This is the guy:

In this photo, taken from his ESLinsider blog, Ian Patrick Leahy gives the misguided advice that people shouldn’t bother taking a college degree course.

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 2025

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 2025

Mia Williams – Trusted TEFL Reviews

Ian is famous in the TEFL world, for all the wrong reasons.

About ten years ago, Ian took a dirt-cheap TEFL course and decided that he could create a better course.

So, he put his skills to work and created a TEFL course which he coined his TEKA course.

To finance the marketing for this TEFL course, he became a prolific blogger, shill, and spammer.

As some TEFL programs have correctly pointed out, Ian and ESLinsider accounts were banned from Facebook because of this shilling and spamming.

If QAnon had a TEFL branch, Ian would be its director.

So many TEFL programs and TEFL accreditation bodies have publicly complained about Ian’s incessant bullying and his non-stop publishing of TEFL conspiracy theories.

Choose any TEFL program or TEFL accreditation body- Ian will have written some garbage online about it.

This was the ESLinsider head office when Ian lived in Japan:

For a while, Ian’s business took off.

He was somehow able to run his business while he lived in and then moved from China to South Korea, and then from Taiwan to Japan.

His big convincer was his blog.

‘ESLinsider’ gives the impression of someone in the know.

The truth is, that Ian has very limited knowledge of TEFL and this has been demonstrated in the teaching videos that he used to upload to his YouTube channel.

It was all about the money.

I don’t think Ian had or has any deep love or attachment to TEFL.

Here is another photo of Ian- also taken in Japan:

Ian went from TEFL program owner to TEFL online teacher.

What happened? Why the fall from grace?

Well, in part, Trusted TEFL Reviews can be thanked for this.

We noticed the growing number of complaints by ESLinsider students.

There were complaints about his customers being defrauded out of their money.

There were complaints about his customers being arrested in China because Ian by then was sought after by the Chinese authorities for fraud. Showing an ESLinsider TEFL certificate at an interview was classed as guilt by association.

There were also complaints about his customers being arrested in China because they took Ian’s advice to buy fake college diplomas.

I’m not making this up, but I do wish I were making it up.

Ian is a menace.

Let’s have another photo of Ian to break up the text in this article.

This one is of Ian teaching Phonics.

The only problem is that he doesn’t have the first clue about phonics:

Someone who does know what phonics is:

So why are we writing this article?

Trusted TEFL Reviews began exposing Ian Leahy two years ago.

And, he DID NOT like it.

He directed his attention away from the TEFL programs and TEFL accreditation bodies that he was destroying online and turned that energy on me and Trusted TEFL Reviews.

His bullying was unbelievable. It was non-stop.

Conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory.

He would write that I was the owner of this and that TEFL program.

A month later, I was the owner of yet another TEFL program.

My name wasn’t Mia.

I was a guy.

And on and on and on and on the garbage spewed from his “office”.

What did I do?

I published an article, exposing Ian.

The article became a mini viral “sensation” in the TEFL world and the result was that Ian went out of business.

He moved back to Monroe, New Hampshire, and began working on the ski slopes there.

Of course, that didn’t stop his harassment of me and most other TEFL programs and TEFL accreditation bodies.

It did, however, slow him down.

Ian is currently working a summer season in Oregon, at one of the lodges there.

On Reddit, he was last seen asking about illegal job opportunities in Chile and New Zealand.

Despite his ESLinsider program being dead in the water, Ian still takes the time to spread his conspiracy theories.

My advice to anyone who reads something that has been written by Ian Patrick Leahy from ESLinsider:

What you are reading has no substance in the real world.

It is just the rantings of a desperate man with a conspiratorial mind.

If you think you are reading something written by Ian Patrick Leahy, you probably are.

He always uses the same style.

Screenshots with line markers added- highlight some nonsense connection that he has made.

As long as Ian believes that he can somehow resurrect his TEFL program from the ashes, he will keep on and on and on and on writing about how bad his competitors are and how fraudulent all the accreditation bodies are.

That, in a nutshell, is Ian Patrick Leahy from ESLinsider.

You can Google search ‘ESLinsider’ and ‘Ian Patrick Leahy TEFL’ for confirmation of what I have written.

Thank you for reading this ESLinsider article.

Mia Williams – Trusted TEFL Reviews

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 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

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

ESLinsider reviews scam? This article digs deep into the Ian Leahy/ESLinsider TEFL/TEKA online course.

ESLinsider reviews scam? We have the inside scoop below for you.

trustedteflreviews.com verified customer reviews of the ESLinsider Online TEFL/TESOL certification course program: https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/eslinsider-tefl/

ESLinsider is owned and run by one individual: Ian (Patrick) Leahy.

ESLinsider has been banned (since 2017) from Facebook, for spreading misinformation and astroturfing.

It has also had a number of its sockpuppet identities banned from Reddit.

Ian’s online operations consist of:

1. A personal blog, where he shares his worldview and TEFL opinions (inghh.com)
2. A professional blog, where he trashes all of his business competition (eslinsider.com)
3. A school website, where he sells his unaccredited TEFL/TEKA course (course.eslinsider.com)

Whilst Trusted TEFL Reviews cannot guarantee with 100% certainty that ESLinsider is a scam operation, there are credible (first-hand) testimonies documented online that claim that Ian Leahy:

1. Convinced people to take his TEFL/TEKA course, placed them in a school, and then creamed off between 20-40% of their monthly salaries without their knowledge or authorization.
2. Recommended to foreign teachers that it was acceptable to use fake college diplomas; resulting in several foreign teachers being detained in China, imprisoned for 30 days, and then subsequently deported from the country with a lifetime travel ban.
3. Made non-TEFL-related purchases with the credit card details of his customers, without their prior knowledge or authorization.

To be fair here, Ian Leahy has flat-out denied all of these accusations. However, when directly confronted in a popular TEFL forum by one of his alleged victims, Ian avoided acknowledging his customer, a female American teacher in her mid-twenties and avoided answering any of the allegations levied against him.

Instead, and in true-to-form Ian Leahy style, he simply claimed “fake news” and that he was the focus of a “witch hunt”. When the forum administrators asked how the customer complaints written on over 20 separately owned websites could be classed as being a fake-news witch hunt, Ian replied that all 24 separately owned and separately operated websites are run by the same person – a person who is out to tarnish his reputation. This defense just doesn’t appear to hold any credibility whatsoever.

This article hasn’t been written to prove or disprove Ian’s innocence. It has been written, instead, to shine a brighter light on Ian Leahy and ESLinsider – to illuminate better for the general reader the credentials of the individual who claims to be an insider expert on everything TEFL-related.

We do raise questions and fact-check Ian, but we also allow Ian to present his side of the story. Ian provides his side of the story in his own spoken and written words: in the website screenshot images below, and his comments section response further down this page.

The first section of this article below was published back in 2020, and additional material has been added further below that more recently in 2021.

For the convenience of our readers, we have labeled the first article section ‘Article Section A’ and the second ‘Article Section B’.

This post was updated on September 14th, 2022, to add ‘Article Section D’.

Essential Tip!

We (Trusted TEFL Reviews) have had enough of the few rogue Online TEFL/TESOL companies that have been coordinating a sustained smear campaign against trustedteflreviews.com and managing to scam students by presenting themselves in a more professional light than they are.

You can read all about this scam in the following 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

1. tefl online pro website: https://teflonlinepro.com/ | tefl online pro verified reviews: https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/tefl-online-pro-teachers-choice-award-winner-2024/

tefl online pro won The Teachers’ Choice Award in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025.

2. OISE University of Toronto TEFL website: https://teflonline.teachaway.com/ | OISE University of Toronto TEFL verified reviews: https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/oise-university-of-toronto-tefl/

3. CIEE TEFL website: https://www.ciee.org/ | CIEE TEFL verified reviews: https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/ciee-tefl/

4. Maximo Nivel TEFL website: https://maximonivel.com/ | Maximo Nivel TEFL verified reviews: https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/maximo-nivel-tefl/

5. Vantage TEFL website: https://www.englishatvantage.com/tefl-combined-class-thailand | Vantage TEFL verified reviews: https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/vantage-tefl-certification/

Mia Williams – Trusted TEFL Reviews

April 25, 2022 update:

Trusted TEFL Reviews received fresh information that Ian Patrick Leahy has spent the past winter working on the ski and snowboarding slopes on the Montana/Idaho border.

It is now Ian’s plan to head to Oregon this summer, to continue seasonal work on the slopes.

We also read a few of Ian’s Reddit comments (which he deleted when he found out we were aware of his many Reddit profiles) in which he enquires about under-the-table paid jobs in Chile and New Zealand.

It is obvious from Ian’s online activity that he now earns very little (if any) money from his ESLinsider TEFL program and that, subsequently, his ESLinsider TEFL program is practically no more.

It is also plainly obvious that the ESLinsider TEFL website is still online because it costs very little to maintain and we imagine that Ian hopes to still make a bit of money out of it – selling unaccredited TEFL courses – when he can.

Article Section A

On July 29, 2020, Trusted TEFL Reviews added a blacklisted warning to the ESLinsider Online TEFL/TESOL (TEKA) certification program and its owner, Ian Leahy.

ESLinsider is run by a guy who goes by the identity, ‘Ian Leahy’. He appears to spend a significant chunk of his free time publishing defamatory material and conspiracy theories on his school blog. Incredibly, these posts are mostly about other Online TEFL programs; i.e. his business competition.

A common thread in his posts is to claim that all positive reviews recorded or written about his competition are fake, and all negative reviews recorded or written about ESLinsider are fake.

Another common thread in his posts is to claim that he has personally taken the TEFL courses of his competitors and that they were all terrible. It could be true that Ian has spent his own money to go Undercover TEFL Student in his business competition, but we feel that this is highly unlikely.

After reading some of Ian’s negative posts levied against his business competition, we can see that Ian doesn’t shy away from writing the most absurd lies to try and convince his readership to instead take his TEFL/TEKA course. We tried fact-checking ESLinsider.com, but after a while, we just gave up because so much of what Ian publishes is simply not true.

This in itself should be a red flag for anyone considering whether to pay money to him.

We also feel that it is very strange that the only reviews of ESLinsider.com are on ESLinsider.com, and (except for one, 4-star review) they all appear to be 5-star ratings.

ESLinsider also doesn’t appear to have any social media footprint to speak of at all, other than his prolific rants on Reddit and Quora.

Again, ESLinsider is banned from Facebook.

Ian Leahy likes to painstakingly point out, though, that he has reviews on his YouTube channel – something that he, of course, has control over. Ian also likes to brag about how popular his YouTube channel is. Upon closer inspection, though, we see that the majority of his videos have less than a few hundred views, and for a channel that has been active for so many years, the number of ESLinsider YouTube subscribers is not as impressive as Ian likes to make out.

Continuing on the theme of reviews: we noticed a batch of recently written (June 2020) Quora posts – all praising his course. All five reviews were written within a couple of days of each other, and all five reviews contain the word, ‘legitimate’.

We checked and all of the posts were written by people who registered with Quora at around the same time, just to write their reviews. The language structure in all five reviews is also remarkably similar.

Before this sudden burst of enthusiasm from these supposed ESLinsider course graduates, who suddenly felt a strong urge to join Quora and write how legitimate his program is, no one had written any feedback on Ian’s courses on Quora since he first began operating his program.

Logically, it would appear that those Quora reviews were likely written by someone connected with ESLinsider. As Ian is the sole owner of the program, we would make a logical guess that he wrote those Quora reviews himself.

Here is one of those Quora posts that Ian has successfully managed to market online for himself:

In recent weeks, we also noticed that Ian Leahy has been spreading false information online about trustedteflreviews.com, and spreading garbage online about the top 5 TEFL/TESOL courses listed on Trusted TEFL Reviews. Our interest was piqued, we dug more into Ian Leahy/ESLinsider, and the red flags just kept popping up.

It is in our professional opinion that Ian Leahy is probably an English teacher, living in Fukuoka, Japan, who created a website and who tries to drum up business for his unrecognized courses by attacking the big TEFL/TESOL course players with outright lies – hoping to catch some crumbs of business in the process. It is also our professional opinion that the reviews that he lists on his website are probably fake.

We advise proceeding with extreme caution when dealing with this individual.

If you do find yourself being convinced to take his TEFL/TEKA course then ask the owner for examples of reviews that are not listed exclusively on his website, on his YouTube channel, or Quora. We advise asking Ian for reviews written on third-party review websites, where he has no control over the content of those reviews.

In the meantime, Ian’s program will remain on trustedteflreviews.com – acting as a public service warning.

His introductory, zero-review rating does mean he will need to begin (alphabetically) at the bottom of the Trusted TEFL Reviews ranking table and then work his way up, once we begin receiving verified customer reviews, written by real people.

We welcome any comments from Ian Leahy, and we welcome any student reviews of his program so that we can hear from anyone who might have taken his Online TEFL/TEKA course.

Ian has been contacted and invited to add his response to this post.

If our information is wrong, we will delete this ESLinsider reviews scam warning.

Article Section B

This section of the article was updated on February 8, 2021.

The following Ian Leahy/ESLinsider website screenshots appear to show a rather different individual than the one who claims to be an insider expert on everything TEFL-related. Two of them, of serious concern I must add, also appear to demonstrate a misogynistic lean in the social philosophy of Ian’s worldview.

Aside from spamming the internet, and offering an unrecognized, unaccredited TEFL/TEKA course, Ian has also been linked to credit card fraud and recommending to teachers wanting to teach in China that they use fake teaching credentials – resulting in their imprisonment and subsequent deportation from China.

This ESLinsider reviews scam accusation can be read online by conducting a Google search.

Article Section C

We wanted to show a typical example of Ian Leahy’s attempt at discrediting a well-respected and fully accredited, reputable Online TEFL/TESOL certification program:

We really can’t imagine what “Based on my experience” means because it is highly unlikely that Ian Leahy has paid the course fee to take this course.

Why has Ian published this nonsense on his TEFL school blog?

He has published it because he hopes that students looking for reviews of the University of Toronto TEFL/Teach Away TESOL program will click on the link, think that he is a TEFL authority, and then gradually become directed to take his unaccredited TEKA TEFL course instead.

It’s spam, and Ian’s spamming was the reason why ESLinsider’s Facebook page was deleted by Facebook and is the reason why Ian Leahy is still banned from posting on Facebook.

Article Section D

This is the sorry-looking TEFL certificate that you will receive if you complete an ESLinsider course:

We advise proceeding with extreme caution when dealing with Ian Leahy and his ESLinsider TEFL/TEKA program. We can’t write with absolute certainty, but it looks very likely that the ESLinsider reviews scam is a genuine concern.

Instead, we recommend choosing to take your international TEFL/TESOL certification course with a program offering a fully accredited course that is far more recognized internationally than ESLinsider TEFL.

The four highest-rated ESLinsider TEFL fully accredited alternative course options, listed in order of customer review ratings:

1. TEFL Online Pro – https://teflonlinepro.com/
2. OISE Toronto TEFL – https://teflonline.teachaway.com/
3. CIEE TEFL – https://www.ciee.org/
4. Maximo Nivel TEFL – https://maximonivel.com/

CIEE TEFL, Maximo Nivel, OISE Toronto TEFL, and TEFL Online Pro are Level 5 and CELTA-equivalent Online TEFL/TESOL certification programs.

TEFL Online Pro verified customer reviews:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/tefl-online-pro-teachers-choice-award-winner-2023/

OISE Toronto TEFL verified customer reviews:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/oise-university-of-toronto-tefl/

CIEE TEFL verified customer reviews:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/ciee-tefl/

Maximo Nivel verified customer reviews:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/maximo-nivel-tefl/

CIEE TEFL, Maximo Nivel, OISE Toronto TEFL, and TEFL Online Pro certificates are Fully Accredited and internationally recognized. ESLinsider TEFL/TEKA certificates are not accredited at all and are not internationally recognized by any stretch of the imagination.

TEFL Online Pro won the Teachers’ Choice Award in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023:

All 52 Online TEFL/TESOL certification course programs currently listed on Trusted TEFL Reviews, ranked in order of customer satisfaction: https://trustedteflreviews.com/tefl-course-directory/

Mia Williams

April 11, 2022 Update:

Ian Patrick Leahy from Eslinsider has spent the second winter in the USA, working on the ski slopes.

This winter, he has been working in Montana.

The world of TEFL can sigh in relief that Ian has taken a break from full-time scamming TEFL students and trashing legitimate TEFL programs online.

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 Online TEFL TESOL Certification Course Reviews Warning appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

The dirty tricks of some Online TEFL certification programs you should be fully aware of.

Hi!

This is a first for us, but we felt that we couldn’t just let this information slide by, as it could either have affected you or is currently affecting you.

Earlier this week, we received a review from a graduate of an Online TEFL program – that will remain nameless – and after our usual checks, we were able to confirm that the review in question was valid. In other words, it was a verified review, written by a real person, who had taken that particular Online TEFL certification course.

The review did tend to lean more towards negativity, than positive feedback, but it was generally a well-balanced review – addressing some key areas whereby the graduate felt could be improved.

We don’t always request copies of TEFL course completion (certificates, etc.) but in this case, we did ask the reviewer if they wouldn’t mind just sending us a copy of their certificate. They obliged, and everything checked out fine.

We then received a strongly-written email, from the Online TEFL school, that had received the review.

At first, they threatened us with legal action, if we wouldn’t delete the review, and then, they attempted to bribe us – offering a monthly payment to keep negative reviews from being published of their Online TEFL program.

We of course stood by our guns, so the saying goes, and reminded the school in question, that we simply publish feedback from people who have taken an Online TEFL course, and that we are in no way liable for the content of material published on trustedteflreviews.com. Oh, and thank you for the offer of the bribe, but, no thank you. Yeah, yeah, but no

But one particular mention got our goat; made our blood boil; enraged us.

The Online TEFL school in question, not only threatened and bribed us, but they also mentioned the names of two other (very popular) TEFL course review websites, where they have this agreement in place of keeping negative reviews deleted, and only positive reviews published.

And this confirmed for us, why it is, that some Online TEFL companies tend to receive quite negative reviews on Trusted TEFL Reviews, but when you take a look online, they are portrayed as being five-star courses.

I don’t think I need to explain this any further, as the vast majority of Trusted TEFL Reviews readers have a higher-than-usual intellect.

What we do want to express within this post, is that Trusted TEFL Reviews only publishes reviews, written by course graduates. And we never pander to Online TEFL schools, to have negative reviews deleted. We have also become quite apt at recognizing fake reviews – written by Online TEFL school staff members, and we always delete these as soon as they arrive in our Inbox.

Of course, this puts us a little in a piggy-in-the-middle position, and we have recently received multiple attacks online – trying to discredit our website – but ultimately, we provide a service for people, who are searching for honest reviews, and trustedteflreviews.com will always remain a source of verified Online TEFL reviews, written by real people.

The two schools, btw, of whom we write in this article have been removed from Trusted TEFL Reviews. If an Online TEFL school isn’t listed on Trusted TEFL Reviews, then it might mean they are not a credible company.

Written by Mia Williams for Trusted TEFL Reviews (TTR) | Best Featured TEFL Articles

Related article: https://trustedteflreviews.com/2021/03/30/6-tefl-red-flags/

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 The dirty tricks of some Online TEFL certification programs you should be fully aware of. appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

This article will help you avoid TEFL course scams during the Online TEFL/TESOL course sign-up process, and when you start searching for a teaching English job overseas or online.

Essential Tip!

We (Trusted TEFL Reviews) have had enough of the few rogue Online TEFL/TESOL companies that have been coordinating a sustained smear campaign against trustedteflreviews.com and managing to scam students by presenting themselves in a more professional light than they are.

You can read all about this scam in the following article:

Online TEFL/TESOL Course Review Scams in 2024

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 2024:

The 5 Best Online TEFL TESOL Courses in 2024

Mia Williams – Trusted TEFL Reviews

Choosing your TEFL/TESOL course.

Thankfully, there are not so many outright TEFL course scams out there regarding teaching English training courses. If you have come across a course and are questioning its legitimacy, you should:

1. Check to see whether the school is listed in the Trusted TEFL Reviews Online TEFL/TESOL Courses Directory: https://trustedteflreviews.com/tefl-course-directory/ If it isn’t listed on Trusted TEFL Reviews, it might be that the school doesn’t exist or has failed the submission process.
2. If searching online, try to discern real student feedback from business competitor attacks. The Online TEFL/TESOL certification course industry is highly competitive and certain companies do thrive, in part, by inflicting intentional damage on their rivals through misinformation campaigns. Always trust verified student feedback when choosing a program.
3. Read the school’s reviews on Trusted TEFL Reviews. All reviews published on Trusted TEFL Reviews have been verified. Before a review is published, we always require additional verification that the person who has written the review really took the course.

Whilst there aren’t a significant number of outright TEFL course scams, there are many cases of grey area TEFL course scams. These low-to-middle-level scams usually present themselves in a school promising something and not delivering on that promise, and/or a school publishing false information so as to try to convince you to enroll in their course.

There are many, many, many fake TEFL reviews on the internet – mostly written by a handful of schools that are notorious within the industry for questionable practices. There is also a worrying trend that some schools will actively encourage graduates to take part in an affiliate links program – this is when you take your course and upon course completion, the school will try hard-selling you to encourage others to sign up, so that you can earn a commission on each future course purchase.

Some programs go even a step further by paying people who have never taken one of their courses to promote their program online; claiming that they took the course and claiming that the course has done so much for them. Instances of this are commonly found in highlighted content on travel blogs/vlogs, where a school is promoted and the blog/vlog author receives a commission when any new applicant uses their discount code at the time of course enrollment. Forums and other discussion sites are also targets for people hoping to make a bit of money by falsely claiming that they took such and such a course, which they “loved”, and closing their copy and paste statement with a checkout coupon code.

At Trusted TEFL Reviews, we make sure that each and every published review is verified and further ensure that no affiliate links are contained anywhere within this site.

Searching for an English teaching job abroad.

Unfortunately, there are many recurring cases of scams involving language schools and teaching overseas agencies.

One scenario is where a teacher applies for a job, through an agency, and pays an administration charge. The teacher then never hears back from the said agency and loses their hard-earned money.

Another type of scam involves identity theft and takes place after a teacher has emailed off scans of their official forms of identification. With this scam, the teacher then never hears back from the agency or school – their documents are used instead to fuel illegal activity.

The third, most popular scam, involves purposefully enticing teachers with misinformation. If a job sounds too good to be true, it invariably is.

So how do you avoid falling for scams when searching for an English teaching job abroad?

1. Never pay anyone for job placement services. There are so many available teaching options out there that it makes little sense in hiring someone to do the legwork for you. If you do decide to go through a job placement agency, you might not only be paying their one-off fee – they might also be making money off you by creaming off a percentage of your monthly salary going forward.
2. Do your background research and thoroughly go through a language school’s online reputation. Check to see what past students and teachers have posted about the school online and try, wherever possible, to speak with current teachers.
3. Reduce the risk of being scammed by applying for the job whilst physically in the country where the school is located. This way, you will have the opportunity of seeing the school’s bricks and mortar premises and judging for yourself whether there is a pleasant working environment or not. This may not be a viable option if say applying for a teaching position in China (where initial applications should be made from your home country) but in these cases, you should rely on your online research to discern whether a school is legit.
4. Lastly, choosing a TEFL/TESOL course program with ongoing job guidance is essential in helping you avoid all the pitfalls discussed above. Most TEFL schools advertise ‘international job guidance’, but not all of them adhere to this promise. Check out the Online TEFL Courses Reviews listed on Trusted TEFL Reviews to make a well-informed course program choice.

A unique feature of Trusted TEFL Reviews, and something that clearly sets us apart from most other Online TEFL reviews websites, is that we don’t allow TEFL programs the possibility of being able to pay to delete negative reviews. What we do allow TEFL programs to do, however, is to respond to any of their verified customer reviews transparently.

Whilst most of the programs listed on Trusted TEFL Reviews treat a negative review as an unavoidable occurrence when running a business, some programs, instead, have chosen the route of trying to pressure us to publish only positive reviews of their program. A couple of programs have also tried to claim that we are somehow associated with the highest-rated Online TEFL programs, so as to try to make it seem that we are biased against them.

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.

If an Online TEFL/TESOL certification program has a high rating on Trusted TEFL Reviews, it means that they are doing something right when it comes to the product they offer and how they treat their customers.

If an Online TEFL/TESOL certification program has a low rating on Trusted TEFL Reviews, it means that they are doing something wrong when it comes to the product they offer and how they treat their customers.

Written by Mia Williams for Trusted TEFL Reviews (TTR) | Best Featured TEFL Articles

Related articles:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2021/03/30/6-tefl-red-flags/

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2021/03/30/common-tefl-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 How not to fall victim to a TEFL scam. appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.