The TEFL Academy review, submitted by Bruce.

I wrote a review of The TEFL Academy on another review website but it was deleted by the website moderators. They claimed it was because they couldn’t verify whether I was a TEFL Academy student or not, even though I presented my course certificate and copies of emails between the TEFL Academy and myself. I’m unsure if I can name that website here but it’s not too hard to find. The TEFL Academy has 5-star reviews after 5-star reviews on there and the website earns money from advertising its courses. I think Trusted TEFL Reviews is the only believable review website I’ve found so far when it comes to reviewing online TEFL and TESOL courses. The rest seem as though they are in the pockets of the TEFL and TESOL course programs. It’s shocking.

I bought into the lies that The TEFL Academy has published on their school website. The lies about them being accredited. They lie about all their happy grads teaching around the world. And the big lie is that they give amazing support and help you find a job. Yep, all of the above is not true. what is true is that the course is excellent, minus the odd spelling mistakes here and there in the content.

I can only give 2 stars because although the course was very good, The TEFL Academy lies about their accreditation and support services.

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

Read more The TEFL Academy 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 “The TEFL Academy lies about their accreditation and support services” appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

Fake Accreditation Warning The TEFL Academy review, submitted by Mia Williams.

Fake Accreditation Warning.

The TEFL Academy – TTA (https://www.theteflacademy.com/) claims to be accredited by Ofqual, TQUK, QUALIFI, DEAC, and AQC.

This is intentionally misleading because these are regulatory bodies and not accreditation bodies.

TEFL students are reporting to Trusted TEFL Reviews that when applying for jobs outside of Ireland and the UK, their TEFL Academy certificates are often not being accepted – both during the job interview process and during the work visa process.

Essential TEFL Tip!

Are you worried about being scammed? TEFL course scams are becoming more sophisticated, and (TTA) The TEFL Academy has been proven to be a scam!

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

Concerning TEFL students reporting that when applying for jobs outside of Ireland and the UK, their TEFL Academy certificates are often not being accepted: https://trustedteflreviews.com/2019/03/25/the-tefl-academy-certification-review/

It also appears that The TEFL Academy is employing graduates of their program to act as ‘Brand Ambassadors’ – pushing the notion that only a TEFL Academy certificate will suffice and that other TEFL TESOL programs are inferior products.

If you stumble across any blog or other website that is critical of any Online TEFL TESOL program other than the TEFL Academy – offering The TEFL Academy as an alternative, better option – we recommend taking the contents of that blog or website with a healthy helping of salt.

It will simply be a front for directing readers to an alternative TEFL course: The TEFL Academy.

In conclusion, The TEFL Academy certificate will be fine if you plan on teaching English in Ireland or the UK. However, for international teaching jobs, we would recommend choosing a Fully Accredited and internationally recognized TEFL TESOL certification course program.

April 25, 2022 update:

As it turns out, a TEFL Academy (TTA) certificate is not even accepted in Ireland as a teaching English as a foreign language qualification.

Trusted TEFL Reviews received a carbon copy of an email, from a worried TTA TEFL certificate holder, in which The TEFL Academy clearly states that its certificates are not valid for teaching English jobs in Ireland.

This news comes as quite a shock because the TEFL Academy’s main headquarters are in Dublin, Ireland.

Not even the country where the company is located will accept its certificates.

A TEFL Academy certificate should be fine for some low-paid teaching English jobs.

For better-paid teaching English online and abroad job opportunities, we recommend choosing a Fully Accredited TEFL/TESOL program.

Institutions providing Online TEFL programs with Fully Accredited status include:

ACCET – Accrediting Council for Continuing Education and Training | https://accet.org/

ACTEFLC – Accreditation Council for Teaching English as a Foreign Language Courses | https://www.acteflc.com/

OISE – University of the Toronto Faculty of Education | https://www.oise.utoronto.ca/

TESL Canada | https://tesl.ca/

University of Cambridge’s English Language Assessment | https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/

Online TEFL courses that are directly accredited by the Ministry of Education also enjoy Fully Accredited status.

The following Online TEFL/TESOL programs (in alphabetical order) are Fully Accredited and internationally recognized:

Bridge TEFL | https://bridge.edu/tefl/ | Bridge TEFL verified trusted TEFL reviews.

CIEE TEFL | https://www.ciee.org/ | CIEE TEFL verified trusted TEFL reviews.

Maximo Nivel TEFL | https://maximonivel.com/ | Maximo Nivel verified trusted TEFL reviews.

ontesol | https://ontesol.com/ | ontesol verified trusted TEFL reviews.

OISE University of Toronto TEFL | https://teflonline.teachaway.com/ | OISE TEFL verified trusted TEFL reviews.

Oxford Seminars | https://www.oxfordseminars.com/ | Oxford Seminars verified trusted TEFL reviews.

TEFL Iberia | https://tefl-iberia.com/ | TEFL Iberia verified trusted TEFL reviews.

TEFL Online Pro (Teachers’ Choice Award winner, 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025) | https://teflonlinepro.com/ | TEFL Online Pro verified trusted TEFL reviews.

Trusted TEFL Reviews recently tried to reach out (twice) to The TEFL Academy, for a clear answer to their bogus accreditation claims. For reasons of fairness, we also reached out to a competing program of The TEFL Academy – TEFL Online Pro – and the results of our telephone conversations can be read in this article:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2021/05/01/the-accreditation-watchdog-the-tefl-academy-versus-tefl-online-pro/

Learn more about TEFL TESOL accreditation:

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

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2021/03/28/tefl-tesol-accreditation-101/

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

Read more The TEFL Academy 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 Fake Accreditation Warning appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

TEFL Con The TEFL Academy review, submitted by Elisa.

TEFL Con.

I was conned by some woman who runs an affiliate website for TTA The TEFL Academy in Ireland/United Kingdom.

When I was conducting my due diligence on TTA (The TEFL Academy) her website kept showing up- masquerading as an impartial reviews website. She has a few teaching tips, but mostly she evaluates TEFL programs and the one she pushes the most is the TEFL Academy. On every page, there was a popup banner, where you could click and save money on the TTA course. It’s only recently that I’ve found out that she works for the TEFL Academy and she earns a commission on each purchase. I don’t have anything against anyone making money on affiliate marketing, but the TEFL Academy course was terrible. It was full of errors, clumsily pieced together, and there wasn’t any of the support provided that was promised. I also had to pay $170 for the delivery of my TEFL certificate, which was on top of the almost 500 Euros which I paid for the course! The cherry on the stale cake was when I found out that the course isn’t even internationally recognized. It’s a con through and through. I have written to the Better Business Bureau to complain and have asked them to take down the affiliate website for false advertising. Avoid this TEFL program folks!

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

Read more The TEFL Academy 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 “TEFL Con” appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

TPR Teaching Caitriona Maria

This is (sigh) yet another example of an online TEFL company behaving badly, and is yet another reason why The TEFL Academy (https://www.theteflacademy.com/) remains on the Trusted TEFL Reviews scam list (https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/x-online-tefl-course-scams/) of online TEFL/TESOL course providers that act unethically and misrepresent themselves to TEFL students.

Back in March 2021, Trusted TEFL Reviews received a TEFL Academy review that contained a lot of marketing language. When it was decided that the review was in direct contradiction to our review submission guidelines, we took the decision not to publish the review.

The review had been submitted by Caitriona McTiernan, who likes to go by the online alias “Caitriona Maria”.

When we decided not to publish Caitriona’s review, due to the fact that she works for The TEFL Academy, that should really have been the end of the story.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t.

Caitriona took offense. Was seemingly outraged. Acted as though it was our obligation to publish her keyword-packed The TEFL Academy review.

Intrigued, Trusted TEFL Reviews took a look at Caitriona’s blog, and we noticed a few important elements:

1. The homepage of the website has been designed to give the impression that TPR Teaching is a source of basic information for English teachers, looking for handy teaching tips.
2. The website strongly recommends The TEFL Academy online TEFL course, which, btw, is not a fully accredited TEFL program.
3. The website recommends some very shady online TEFL courses which are similarly not accredited or internationally recognized.
4. Caitriona writes about TEFL locations around the world, but a lot of her information is either inaccurate or misleading.

One more thing that we noticed, a few weeks after Trusted TEFL Reviews declined to publish Caitriona’s The TEFL Academy review, was a scathing attack on Trusted TEFL Reviews by Caitriona “Maria” McTiernan.

When we looked closer, we saw that Caitriona simply copied the misinformation spread by Ian Leahy, from ESLinsider. Ian Leahy is notorious within the TEFL industry for publishing rubbish online about his business competition. More about Ian Leahy and ESLinsider:

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

Of all the TEFL programs to aspire to, The TEFL Academy and Caitriona “Maria” McTiernan couldn’t have picked a worse one in ESLinsider TEFL.

Caitriona is relatively young and we initially didn’t feel comfortable publishing a post about her shilling of The TEFL Academy. However, over time, we have noticed how shrewd she is and how invested she is in promoting The TEFL Academy through outright lies.

Therefore, we feel that this post is a public service for any future TEFL students who may stumble across her blog and who will likely be unaware of the behind-the-scenes hidden agenda of Caitriona’s website.

Incidentally, Caitriona only began her website in early 2020 and it already enjoys quite a significant Google ranking presence. We assume that this is because The TEFL Academy clandestinely promotes it behind the scenes, through link farming techniques.

So, therefore, the TPR Teaching website, owned and operated by Caitriona “Maria” McTiernan, is simply an extension of The TEFL Academy’s business model.

Caitriona has been a TEFL Academy student and is completely welcome to write what she likes about her experience of the program, despite the fact that she mentions things like it is a “highly accredited course”.

However, she also earns money by recommending other TEFL programs that she has no direct experience of and which she earns an affiliate’s commission from each time an unwitting person buys a TEFL course through her website.

For example, Caitriona praises and promotes the MyTEFL online TEFL program.

MyTEFL has also been exposed for their fake accreditation and the way that they misrepresent their job placement services to their TEFL graduates:

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

The TEFL industry is full of individuals who see an opportunity of making some affiliates marketing money by recommending courses that they know very little about.

Caitriona is one of these people.

It is not positive for the industry, and it is not positive for the TEFL students who suddenly find out one day that their TEFL certificate course was a waste of money when an employer or government agency declines their job or visa application.

This is all that we are going to write as of this point because I personally feel that I have summed everything up already.

What I will do now is complete this article with images and comments, which further cement the fact that websites such as TPR Teaching are bad for the TEFL industry.

Incidentally, when Trusted TEFL Reviews tried to add a comment to the TPR Teaching website, our comment wasn’t published by Caitriona. We have received complaints from other people who have also not had their comments published on Caitriona “Maria” McTiernan’s website.

We would advise treading carefully and taking anything published on the TPR Teaching site with a generous dose of skepticism.

Caitriona and The TEFL Academy are welcome to add a comment to this article.

Mia Williams

trustedteflreviews.com

Related articles:

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

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2019/03/25/the-tefl-academy-certification-review/

May 2022 Caitriona Maria McTiernan Update

This is a quick Trusted TEFL Reviews update, highlighting the continued harassment that I (Mia Williams) have been receiving from TTA The TEFL Academy, and one of its employees: Caitriona Maria McTiernan.

Trusted TEFL Reviews received these two messages from Caitriona Maria two days ago:

At first, we refused to delete the comments.

But then, we decided to delete these two comments from this article because we get how some people can act and say really dumb things when they are stressed out.

When we received yet another message, also from Caitriona Maria McTiernan – a message that we can’t publish on here because of the intense use of expletives and graphic threats – we made the call to publish the screenshot that we had taken of Caitriona’s previous two comments submitted to trustedteflreviews.com on May 17th.

TTA The TEFL Academy and its Brand Ambassador Caitriona Maria McTiernan are very good at marketing. However, I’m not certain how they are going to market themselves out of this one.

Mia Williams | Trusted TEFL Reviews

The post TPR Teaching Caitriona Maria appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

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

The post TEFL Course Scams In 2026 – Public Notice! appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

The article begins under the two following advertising banners.

Banner #1 is for a limited-time discount from TEFL Online Pro – winner of the 2025 Teachers’ Choice Award. The winner of the Teachers’ Choice award may, at their discretion, advertise for free on Trusted TEFL Reviews for as long as they are the holder of this prestigious award.

Banner #2 is the current list of the 5 Best online TEFL/TESOL certification courses, based on verified student reviews. If in doubt, choose from one of the 5 Best course programs because they are all internationally recognized and reputable companies.

Both banners represent top-rated online TEFL and TESOL certification course programs.

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

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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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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.

TEFL Certification Scams 2026.

This article was updated on December 21, 2025.

Trusted TEFL Reviews has witnessed a worrying trend in the increase of TEFL certification scams in 2026.

When the pandemic hit, a lot of new programs began to spring up from nowhere.

Not all of these were scams, but many had been established purely to get in on the booming Online TEFL/TESOL training industry and make some fast money before they exited the market.

During that period, the Fed was printing more money than it had in its entire history (Quantitative Easing) and many people found themselves being able to save money and being able to afford to spend money on online training.

Move ahead two years and the global economy is in trouble.

There is a war in Ukraine and the Middle East, there are global supply chain issues, and the Fed is now in a period of quantitative tightening.

How does this affect the TEFL industry as a whole?

People have less money to spend because of the high rates of inflation and high-interest rates, and many people just don’t have the funds available to take an online TEFL/TESOL course.

As a result, there is less money pouring into the TEFL industry and some companies are at risk of going bankrupt.

To avoid this, some companies are becoming ever more aggressive with their false marketing and hidden fees.

Whenever I read things on TEFL websites like “we are the most accredited” or “we are the most recognized”, I have a bit of a laugh to myself- especially when I see that the company is not even fully accredited.

TEFL Certification Scams 2026 | Accreditation

Online TEFL TESOL certification course programs are categorized as either ‘Unaccredited‘, ‘Accredited‘, or ‘Fully Accredited‘.

‘Fully Accredited‘ is the highest level of accreditation, providing you with access to the best-paid TEFL jobs and ensuring that your certificate will be accepted worldwide for TEFL jobs and TEFL visas.

A TEFL/TESOL certificate from an ‘Accredited‘ program will be accepted for most low-paying jobs, but you may find yourself being turned down for some TEFL jobs and some TEFL visas.

‘Unaccredited‘ TEFL/TESOL certificates best suit people who will be doing unpaid volunteer TEFL work.

Despite these clear definitions that are globally recognized, I have noticed that many TEFL programs are falsely claiming Fully Accredited status when they are only Accredited or Unaccredited.

Fully Accredited Online TEFL/TESOL certification programs are essential choices because these programs have little risk of going bankrupt in difficult financial times and because TEFL/TESOL certificates from these programs represent the best bang for your buck. Period.

Out of the 54 Online TEFL/TESOL certification programs listed in the Trusted TEFL Reviews TEFL Course Directory, only eight are Fully Accredited.

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

In current review-ranked order, these Fully Accredited programs are:

1. TEFL Online Pro

Program website: https://teflonlinepro.com/

Verified reviews: https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/tefl-online-pro-teachers-choice-award-winner-2024/

Teachers’ Choice Award | TEFL Online Pro has won the prestigious Teachers’ Choice Award for the past seven consecutive years: 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025.

TEFL/TESOL online programs that win the Teachers’ Choice Award are granted the ability to enjoy a whole year’s free exposure on Trusted TEFL Reviews, where they may post, for example, any current course discounts or promotions.

2. OISE University of Toronto TEFL

Program website: https://teflonline.teachaway.com/

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

3. CIEE TEFL

Program website: https://www.ciee.org/

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

4. Maximo Nivel TEFL

Program website: https://maximonivel.com/

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

10. Bridge TEFL

Program website: https://bridge.edu/tefl/

Verified reviews: https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/bridge-tefl/

16. Oxford Seminars

Program website: https://www.oxfordseminars.com/

Verified reviews: https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/oxford-seminars/

28. TEFL Iberia

Program website: https://tefl-iberia.com/

Verified reviews: https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/tefl-iberia/

33. ontesol

Program website: https://ontesol.com/

Verified reviews: https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/ontesol/

If your TEFL program is not listed in these eight, it is either only Accredited or Unaccredited.

And finally, as the last point, many Accredited or Unaccredited programs don’t like that they are being listed as such on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

Instead, they want to maintain the illusion of being Fully Accredited because this is one of their main (false) selling points.

So what do they do? They tell their students not to believe the content published on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

Some students believe them, and others don’t.

Ultimately, people always believe what Trusted TEFL Reviews publishes when they find themselves turned down for a job offer or a work visa because their TEFL/TESOL certificate isn’t Fully Accredited.

They then have to quickly sign up for one of the TEFL/TESOL courses listed on Trusted TEFL Reviews that is Fully Accredited and internationally recognized, to satisfy the job and visa requirements.

Thank you for reading this TEFL Certification Scams 2026 article.

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

The post TEFL Certification Scams 2026 appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

How to avoid the most common TEFL TESOL certification course scams.

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

Common TEFL Scams come in various forms and from various sources. When people think of ‘TEFL Scam’ they usually think first of the scenario where they pay for a TEFL course and receive nothing in return. Thankfully, this is a rare occurrence. You are, however, much more likely to fall victim to a TEFL scam unwittingly- one that you may not discover a victim of until a few months or even a few years later.

This article will look at the most common TEFL Scams and will demonstrate how to avoid these easy-to-miss pitfalls. We will also be highlighting the Online TEFL certification course programs that are well-known in the TEFL industry for their shady business practices. i.e., TEFL programs to avoid.

At the end of this article, we list the Online TEFL/TESOL certification course programs that we recommend taking if you are having a hard time deciding on which course to take.

1. Common TEFL Scams – Fake Reviews.

Fake customer reviews are a huge issue across the board for most industries and the world of TEFL is no different. The fakers have been getting more and more sophisticated and it can now be very difficult to distinguish real reviews from fake reviews.

Let’s take a look at one of the worst fake reviews offenders: The TEFL Academy.

The TEFL Academy (TTA) used to be a well-respected Online TEFL TESOL course provider, before 2021, until they brought in a new CEO: Thomas Gibbons. Since Thomas’s appointment, Trusted TEFL Reviews (TTR) has witnessed a substantial overnight increase in “customer reviews” for TTA.

One only needs to look at TTA’s customer reviews on Reviews.io, Trust Pilot, and Hello Peter, to ascertain that something isn’t quite right with the sheer number of 5-star glowing reviews being received all at once for this program, as well as on its Facebook (Meta) page.

How can we be certain that TTA is publishing fake reviews?

Soon after Thomas’s new appointment as CEO at TTA, TTR suddenly began receiving a lot of reviews all at once for TTA’s listing. In one day, if my memory serves me correctly, we received just over 20 reviews for the TEFL Academy program.

Out of those 20 reviews, only four were found to possibly come from a real reviewer. Out of those four, no one returned our email when we requested proof of course enrollment.

It was then that we suddenly stopped receiving so many reviews for this program- until March of this year that is.

In March of 2021, TTR received yet another suspicious TTA review, stuffed with a lot of marketing keywords. The review was submitted by one of their Brand Ambassadors, masquerading as a recently-graduated TTA TEFL student – Caitriona McTiernan.

What does a TEFL Academy Brand Ambassador do? As far as we can gather, it is their job to promote TTA’s courses. In return for their hard work and diligence, they earn a 20% affiliate commission on every TEFL Academy course that is purchased via their recommendation.

TTA’s Brand Ambassadors have demonstrated that they are capable of seriously stretching the truth and can write absolutely anything, without accountability, to earn a juicy 20% affiliate commission fee on every TTA course referral.

And Caitriona earns a ton of money by promoting The TEFL Academy – a UK/Ireland-based TEFL school that rips its customers off through false advertising and likewise false claims.

But, hey, it pays for her trips abroad and I guess she somehow inner justifies the whole shebang. Somehow. I, for one, couldn’t. And neither, I’m assuming, could you.

More about affiliate commissions is in section 2 of this article.

We consider the blatant faking of customer reviews to be a serious red flag.

Whenever we come across examples of this, we always expose the company or individuals behind the fake reviews- as we have done so regarding The TEFL Academy:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2019/03/25/the-tefl-academy-certification-review/

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2022/05/19/tta-the-tefl-academy/

Incidentally, the path of least resistance for these fake review scammers, when their review is denied publication, is sometimes to claim that Trusted TEFL Reviews is biased. Invariably, the found-out fake reviewer will claim that TTR is owned by such and such a TEFL program- a claim designed to reduce the credibility of TTR and reduce the credibility of them having been exposed as a fake reviewer.

If the TEFL program that they are reviewing tends to receive poor reviews, as The TEFL Academy does, the fake reviewer will also be trying to reduce the credibility of those verified customers’ poor reviews.

Claims made that Trusted TEFL Reviews is a biased reviews website, owned and run by any of the TEFL reviews websites listed on Trusted TEFL Reviews, is a clear sign that the person or company making the claims is trying to cover something up.

Such claims always lead back to an individual representing a TEFL company, or a TEFL company acting in its self-interests. In both cases, the hidden agenda behind such claims stems from a TEFL program with a poor reputation- a poor reputation that they are trying to cover up and conceal from future paying customers.

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.

Tefl Online Pro won this prestigious award in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025.

https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/tefl-online-pro-reviews-in-2025

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 it offers and how it treats its 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 it offers and how it treats its customers.

Other programs that have also followed this path of least resistance line of attack, just as The TEFL Academy has done so, are Ian Patrick Leahy from ESLinsider TEFL, Henry Harvin Education, ITTT TEFL, MyTEFL, TEFL Fullcircle, and World TESOL Academy.

What else do these fake-review Online TEFL/TESOL programs have in common?

They all offer unaccredited courses, despite almost all of them claiming to be “accredited” and “international”.

Where is a good source for real TEFL student reviews?

Facebook tends to be a very good source because it has at least some moderation systems put in place, whereby they are able, over time, to delete suspect reviews.

trustedteflreviews.com remains one of the most trusted sources for customer reviews because we are an independent reviews website- meaning that we don’t have a horse in the race and we are free to publish any customer reviews that have been verified as coming from a reliable source.

The verification process for the publication of reviews on TTR includes requesting proof of course enrollment.

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/

2. Common TEFL Scams – Affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing is another major spanner in the works when it comes to the perpetuation of common TEFL scams.

The TEFL course affiliates marketing scam works like this:

Person ‘A’ wants to earn money online. They realize that they can earn money online by recommending a TEFL program and earning a commission on every course purchase that they initiate. The commission rate is usually around 20% of the total course purchase price. Person ‘A’, who has never taken the TEFL course, begins blogging about that TEFL course- claiming that they purchased and took the course, that it was amazing, and that others should also purchase and take the course.

The internet is rife with travel blogs that are signed up to TEFL course affiliate programs.

You can usually recognize them because they have unique names, such as ‘Goats On The Road’, ‘Roaming Vegans’, ‘Two Monkeys Travel Group’, etc.

Some TEFL programs, such as The TEFL Academy, have gone a step further by employing their own ‘brand ambassadors’ to affiliate market their courses for them. In some cases, the brand ambassador will be a graduate of the program, but in other cases, the brand ambassador will have no first-hand knowledge of the course.

Either way, when you are being paid to write only positive things about a product/service because you get to gain from your content, it is highly unlikely that you will be objective in your coverage of the product/service for which you are writing.

Not all TEFL programs have an affiliate marketing program, but the ones that do tend to be programs that you would do best to avoid. MyTEFL and The TEFL Academy are two unaccredited Online TEFL TESOL certification programs that rely heavily on their affiliates’ minions for new paying customers.

Of further concern is that some of the most well-known TEFL course reviews websites, travel abroad/overseas websites, and work abroad/overseas websites are knee-deep in the affiliate’s marketing model- earning an affiliate’s marketing income from TEFL course sales of the programs that they have listed, and which they accept reviews of on their sites.

Affiliate marketing is one of the common TEFL scams. You should most certainly take anything written by an affiliate marketer with extreme skepticism because they often, if not always, have a hidden agenda behind the content that they have written.

3. Common TEFL Scams – Accreditation.

TEFL accreditation is another area in which there lurk Common TEFL Scams.

Because there is not one central accreditation body for Online TEFL TESOL certification courses, there are, instead, a handful of accreditation bodies that fully accredited Online TEFL TESOL certification course programs.

The accreditation bodies authorized to provide Fully Accredited status to Online TEFL TESOL certification course programs:

ACCET – Accrediting Council for Continuing Education and Training | https://accet.org/

ACTEFLC – Accreditation Council for Teaching English as a Foreign Language Courses | https://www.acteflc.com/

OISE – University of the Toronto Faculty of Education | https://www.oise.utoronto.ca/

TESL Canada | https://tesl.ca/

University of Cambridge’s English Language Assessment | https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/

Online TEFL courses that are directly accredited by the Ministry of Education also enjoy Fully Accredited status.

There are, of course, other “accreditation awarding institutions” out there, such as Accreditat, OTTSA, and ITEFLAC, but they are fake accreditation websites.

Trusted TEFL Reviews ran an article on the OTTSA accreditation scam a while back:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2020/02/18/warning-the-ottsa-accrediting-professionals-scam/

MyTEFL started with OTTSA accreditation. As has ITTT TEFL.

About six months after we ran the OTTSA accreditation scam article, MyTEFL also magically gained “accreditation” from ITEFLAC – a website that suspiciously appears to have been created by MyTEFL. 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’.

MyTEFL and ITTT TEFL issue their course certificates out of Thailand. OTTSA was created by a newbie English teacher, Simon Godwin, who lives in Thailand.

OTTSA is a creation of MyTEFL and ITTT TEFL.

ITEFLAC is so obviously a scam. You only have to look at the website to see that it is a fake accreditation website. Could ITEFLAC also have been created by MyTEFL? Possibly. We definitely wouldn’t put it past them.

The TEFL Academy also lies about its accreditation claims.

On the TTA website, it is claimed that The TEFL Academy is accredited by Ofqual, QUALIFI, DEAC, and AQC.

These are external bodies authorized to regulate education programs, not accredit them.

The TEFL Academy (TTA) is, therefore, heavily regulated, but is not accredited at all.

The lesson to be learned here is that when choosing which Online TEFL TESOL certification course to take, choose a course that is fully accredited by one of the (top) above-mentioned reputable international accreditation bodies.

4. Common TEFL Scams – The ‘That TEFL Course is a scam or fraud’ scam.

When I traveled in India, one of the stand-out annoyances was how whenever I would arrive in a new place, with my mind made up on where I was going to sleep for the night, I was always told by random strangers on the train or bus stations that the place where I had chosen to stay was “bad”, “no longer in business”, or “a scam”.

This would then follow with a recommendation of their own, for a far better place where I should sleep instead.

In 100% of these run-ins with “helpful” strangers, not once was my intended accommodation as was described by them.

This is also a Common TEFL Scam.

Some Online TEFL TESOL programs spend vast amounts of their time spreading fake information online about their competitors, to try and convince people to take their course program instead.

A clear winner in this category is Ian Patrick Leahy, from ESLinsider TEFL.

Ian has carved out a specific niche for himself, whereby he churns out pages and pages of misdirected online content- all with the sole intention of selling more of his unaccredited ESLinsider TEFL /TEKA courses.

In other words, Ian Patrick Leahy is a serial online spammer.

Ian and his ESLinsider TEFL course have been banned from Facebook for this excessive spamming and excessive spreading of false information.

Pick and choose any Online TEFL/TESOL certification program – Ian will have written some trash online about it at some time, on his school blog or YouTube channel.

The major irony is that Ian Leahy from ESLinsider TEFL has been directly linked with the imprisonment of English teachers in China.

Just Google ‘ESLinsider Scams Asia’ and you discover a treasure trove of complaints and warnings.

Ian was not only selling his unaccredited TEFL/TEKA course to unsuspecting people. He was also selling fake college diplomas. The Chinese authorities found out and arrested and then deported anyone they found to have bought a fake college diploma from Ian Leahy/ESLinsider.

There are now warnings issued by various reputable sources – all advising people not to take one of Ian’s ESLinsider TEFL/TEKA courses because if they do, they won’t be eligible for a work visa and might be detained due to association with Ian’s TEFL course.

In addition to this bombshell, it has recently come to light that Ian Leahy has been accused, by his verified customers, of having withdrawn money from their debit and credit cards without prior authorization and for purchases not related to TEFL.

Ian Patrick Leahy claims to be a ‘TEFL expert’, an ‘ESL insider’, but has little knowledge of TEFL – demonstrated in one of his YouTube videos, where a user comments on him not knowing the first thing about teaching Phonetics.

The Ian Patrick Leahy ESLinsider scam has been covered in detail on Trusted TEFL Reviews, using Ian’s own published content against him: https://trustedteflreviews.com/2020/02/03/eslinsider-reviews-scam/

We often receive emails, asking whether so and so’s Online TEFL course program is legit or not, and citing concerns about something they have read online that points to the opposite conclusion.

Our advice is always the same.

Place importance on verified customer feedback. Don’t place importance on content that is not from a verified customer source.

5. Common TEFL Scams – Dirt-cheap TEFL courses.

If you pay peanuts then you get monkeys, and if you buy an Online TEFL TESOL certification course for peanuts then you will be setting yourself up for immediate failure and for becoming victim to the dirt-cheap Common TEFL Scams.

We do understand that money can be tight for some people, but there are some purchases in life that you don’t want to save on and compromise quality on.

A TEFL course is something you don’t want to make a huge saving on because there is always a reason behind that huge saving.

If you purchase a 120-hour Online TEFL TESOL certification course for under US$100, you can expect that course to be unaccredited and full of grammar and spelling errors. You can also expect that you will learn very little on the course and that your course certificate will look like a 5-year-old created it.

The dirt-cheap Online TEFL TESOL certification courses are also almost always not accepted by online/international employers, and you will likely discover down the path that your certificate won’t be accepted as a document for the work visa that will be essential for your teaching purposes.

Do yourself a favor and invest a little bit more and earn an internationally recognized TEFL TESOL certificate that will properly train you to teach English, and that will be accepted worldwide.

The Online TEFL TESOL certification courses that Trusted TEFL Reviews recommends you take.

TTR is an unbiased Online TEFL/TESOL reviews website, so we are completely impartial when it comes to which TEFL course you should take.

However, based on the verified reviews submitted over the years by Online TEFL/TESOL course customers, we would recommend, if you are having a hard time deciding on which course to take, the following (listed in order of customer review ratings) Fully Accredited Online TEFL/TESOL certification course programs:

TEFL Online Pro | Verified customer reviews | https://teflonlinepro.com/

TEFL/TESOL online programs receive an additional program reviews category when they win the Teachers’ Choice Award and are granted the ability to promote their course discounts or promotions on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

OISE University of Toronto TEFL | Verified customer reviews | https://www.teachaway.com/

CIEE TEFL | Verified customer reviews | https://www.ciee.org/

Maximo Nivel TEFL | Verified customer reviews | https://maximonivel.com/

CIEE TEFL, Maximo Nivel, OISE Toronto TEFL, and TEFL Online Pro certificates are Fully Accredited and internationally recognized.

Read more: The 5 best Online TEFL TESOL courses to take in 2026

TEFL Online Pro has won the Teachers’ Choice Award in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2024/10/19/the-teachers-international-online-tefl-tesol-certification-course-choice-award-winner/

Stay safe out there!

This ‘Common TEFL Scams | What To Watch Out For’ 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

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

The post Common TEFL Scams | What To Watch Out For appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

The MyTEFL.com Scam. MyTEFL is an unaccredited Online TEFL/TESOL course provider, known for taking advantage of its graduates by charging exorbitant fees for job placement services – job placement services that are often changed last minute, with teachers finding themselves placed in accommodation and schools that offer far less quality and teacher satisfaction than what was originally promised to them. MyTEFL is also famous for scamming its job placement students, by withholding a large chunk of their teaching salaries and keeping them indefinitely in the MyTEFL company bank account.

The MyTEFL.com scam.

MyTEFL is not a legitimate online TEFL/TESOL certification company | MyTEFL is not a fully accredited online TEFL/TESOL certification courses program.

Trusted TEFL Reviews recommends avoiding MyTEFL.

The main reasons for this Buyer Beware Warning:

1. MyTEFL claims to be accredited by OTTSA and ITEFLAC. OTTSA was created by a former building manager from the UK, with direct ties to MyTEFL. ITEFLAC is a fake accreditation website. NEW! MyTEFL also now claims to be accredited by the International Council for Online Educational Standards (ICOES). ICOES is, putting it kindly, a dodgy accreditation company. Its list of companies that it boasts of accrediting includes ‘Permanent Jewelry Bestie’ and ‘spray tan class’.
2. This program has attempted, on a number of occasions, to get reviews written by their staff employees published on Trusted TEFL Reviews. Trusted TEFL Reviews only publishes verified Online TEFL/TESOL customer reviews – we don’t publish fictitious reviews, self-written by Online TEFL/TESOL programs.
3. Customers complain, on a regular basis, about the job placement services offered by MyTEFL. If you decide to pay for job placement services offered through MyTEFL and Footprints Recruiting (their sister company) you will almost certainly find yourself being given alternative travel arrangements last minute – finding yourself living in different accommodations than was originally agreed upon and teaching many more hours than was previously agreed. MyTEFL doesn’t only make money from the work they do to help you find a teaching job overseas. They also make money from you by creaming off up to 40% of your monthly salary and keeping a hold of those amounts indefinitely.
4. A common complaint made by verified customers of this program is that they have easily completed the whole “120-Hour” course within one day, and have further complained that they learned very little during the course.
5. MyTEFL has been running a 30% Off courses discount, continuously, for the past year.

Essential TEFL Tip!

Are you worried about being scammed? TEFL course scams are becoming more sophisticated, and MyTEFL has been proven to be a scam!

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

The four highest-rated MyTEFL 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-2024

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. MyTEFL certificates are not fully accredited and are not internationally recognized.

TEFL Online Pro won the Teachers’ Choice Award in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025:

All 46 Online TEFL/TESOL certification course programs currently listed on Trusted TEFL Reviews, ranked in order of customer satisfaction: https://trustedteflreviews.com/tefl-course-directory/

The MyTEFL.com scam.

There are three levels of accreditation: Unaccredited / Accredited / Fully Accredited.

‘Fully Accredited‘ status is the highest level of accreditation.

MyTEFL is an ‘Accredited’ Online TEFL/TESOL certification program.

This means that the MyTEFL certificate is regionally recognized but not necessarily internationally recognized.

Read more about the different levels of accreditation:

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

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2021/03/28/tefl-tesol-accreditation-101/

We don’t like having to do this, but our hand has now been forced to do so.

In a previous scam article, we wrote about being defamed online.

It was pretty clear to us that the intention behind the abuse is to try and undermine the credibility of trustedteflreviews.com. And we wrote that we would try and work out who could be behind these unfounded and completely false allegations.

We now have rock-solid evidence that the defamation is being orchestrated by MyTEFL.com.

This is one example of The MyTEFL.com Scam.

MyTEFL operates out of Vancouver BC Canada, under the business identity: Footprints Language Education Ltd (Footprints Recruiting).

The long and short of it is that MyTEFL is unhappy with some of their verified customer reviews published on trustedteflreviews.com. MyTEFL contacted us towards the end of last year, to ask if we could delete the negative reviews. When we explained to them that we wouldn’t be deleting these reviews, they responded with online defamation.

In the past few days, MyTEFL has openly written in an email that they will look into possibly deleting the defaming content if we can look into possibly deleting the reviews – thus adding blackmail into the equation too.

This led us to begin collecting information on MyTEFL and Footprints Recruiting, and we were shocked at what we found.

As a result of MyTEFL choosing to go down the blackmail and defamation route, we have no choice other than to respond by exposing this company’s fraudulent activities. All this information will be added below this written notice in due course.

Therefore, please watch this space for further updates over the coming days.

Mia Williams – Trusted TEFL Reviews

Update: 01.31.2020

At the beginning of this week, Trusted TEFL Reviews reached out to MyTEFL.com, to politely request that if they were to take down the defamatory materials that they had published online about trustedteflreviews.com and refrain from bullying tactics – thus demonstrating a level of professionalism from their end – we would be happy to delete this post and then everyone could just move on without any drama.

Their response was to threaten us with further online attacks.

This is another example of The MyTEFL.com Scam

And so again, our hand has been forced and we are now proceeding with what our team’s research unearthed regarding MyTEFL.com and Footprints Recruiting – operating under different company aliases, but for all purposes the same company – headed by the same management.

To make this light and breezy, we will try to reduce text and try to rely on photographic/screenshot evidence…

Warning 1: “Tyler K”

If you have ever communicated with MyTEFL.com there is a high probability that you communicated directly, or indirectly with the so-called owner of the company: “Tyler K”.

Here are three mugshots of “Tyler K”:

The case in question centered on the almost non-existent vetting procedures of certain recruitment agencies. The above screenshot was taken just as the TV Presenter candidly probed the scraggy tie Ben, whether it was his agency who sent the teacher (“Mr. Swirly Face“) over to South Korea. Here, in his ‘Prince Andrew’ moment, Ben allegedly lies, as our records show that Footprints Recruiting (also operating under ‘Korea Connections’ at the time) did place him directly as a teacher to the Kwangju Foreign School, South Korea.

And the telling of black lies and porky pies continue. At that time, he had no children. Yes, he did/does work on ESL101, but if you go to the site and take a closer look, you can see that he contributes on a minimal basis. It’s just his name on the site and a group of unpaid interns contributing the bulk of the material.

Now, unless the two CEOs at Footprints Recruiting are identical twins, Ben and Tyler are spitting image doppelgangers. The 5 o’clock shadow, the ‘V’ hairline. Perhaps that’s why Ben was wearing shades in this promotional article. But why wouldn’t he want to be identified?

Conclusion: Ben Glickman is operating MyTEFL.com under the alias, “Tyler K”. If someone is willing to lie about their name, what else are they willing to lie about?

Warning 2: Accreditation

MyTEFL.com (and a certain member of their “group”) are very proud of their accreditation status, despite the online TEFL industry being unregulated and there being no one international accreditation organization for online TEFL/TESOL certification courses.

There are a few legitimate Fully Accredited and internationally recognized Online TEFL/TESOL certification course providers though, and these can be viewed in the Courses Directory.

I imagine that for anyone skimming the MyTEFL.com website, this seemingly valid endorsement from an external body could be the motivating reason for purchasing a MyTEFL.com course. At first glance, it certainly looks very professional.

Unfortunately, it is an outright scam.

OTTSA “Accrediting Professionals” claims to accredit MyTEFL and ITTT TEFL and doesn’t respond to inquiries about accreditation from literally anyone interested in accrediting their program through this “accreditation board”. I don’t care about accreditation, however, if someone is lying about it for financial gain then I know that a lot of people care.

If you take a look at Ottsa’s list of “Accredited Courses” over at http://www.ottsa.org/accredited_courses.php and if you conduct a deep search, you will soon realize that the only two online TEFL courses that care about this “accreditation” are MyTEFL and ITTT TEFL. And it’s designed to be that way. All they have done, which is quite clever, is to add some other very similarly designed TEFL courses to the list of “Accredited courses” and you can see that by the website designs that they were made by the same people. A couple of the courses on that list claim to offer 120-hour online TEFL certification courses for over 1,000 USD – apart from this obvious red herring claim when we tried to contact these fake TEFL schools we actually couldn’t find a contact for them.

Trusted TEFL Reviews recently wrote an article about accreditation, and our next Online TEFL Course Scams article will focus on the various “accreditation” companies – touted by some of the main Online TEFL course schools – and we will be unearthing the fake ones, together with the Online TEFL Programs that have paid (fake and deceiving) accreditation logos listed on their school websites.

Please read the Warning! The OTTSA Accrediting professionals scam post for the latest update.

Warning 3: Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing has become popular during the past decade, and when conducted ethically, it can help both the consumer and the business.

However, our attention was recently brought to the attention of a MyTEFL.com review on trustedteflreviews.com where the reviewer warned others not to trust the motivation behind MyTEFL’s affiliate “TEFL soldiers” out on the global field: https://trustedteflreviews.com/2019/12/28/dont-believe-the-mytefl-travel-blogs/

Trusted TEFL Reviews decided to look further into this and discovered the company with whom MyTEFL.com has an affiliate agreement:

Ah, there’s “Tyler K” again

If you Google, ‘MyTEFL Reviews’ or, ‘MyTEFL Blog’ then you are certain to land upon seemingly innocent blogs, whereby the blog owners and writers praise MyTEFL.com to the high heavens and tell you TEFL mantras such as, “Go for it!”, “It changed my life!”.

The issue here is that it cannot be certain that these bloggers even took the MyTEFL.com course. And if they did, they could never be the source of impartial, unbiased feedback because for every one of you who uses one of their promo codes – always shown in a predominant section of the website/blog – the owner of the website/blog receives a commission for the sale in return.

So, in this case, we completely agree with the comments made by Alex when she writes, ‘Do not believe the MyTEFL travel blogs’.

One other amazing example is the current trend for MyTEFL affiliates to create mirror image “The Best 5 Online TEFL Courses” websites. MyTEFL and their “group” always feature at the top. And of course, the website is jam-packed with affiliate links – with people low on funds writing such rubbish as either never have taken any courses on the list, or who have taken one and then seen a way to further their world travels by earning money through the MyTEFL affiliates program. #misleading.

Warning 4: Fake Reviews

In our previous Online TEFL Course Reviews Scams article, we noted that MyTEFL.com contacted us at trustedteflreviews.com towards the end of last year – at the time, politely requesting whether we could delete negative, verified customer reviews of their Online TEFL program. We declined and the online defamation began.

Unfortunately, I don’t have copies of those emails because at the time I assumed I was dealing with a professional TEFL course owner.

In the past weeks, however, we received strongly-worded threats to delete verified customer negative reviews – reviews that MyTEFL.com now conveniently chooses to label as being “fake”.

A verified customer review on trustedteflreviews.com may be negative, but it isn’t fake – especially when a course certificate of TEFL completion is used as proof of course attendance.

The following are snippets of a recent conversation between Ben Glickman (AKA “Tyler K”) and forwarded to me (Mia Williams) through an anonymous third party. I won’t be adding any additional text to the email screenshots as I feel they speak for themselves, and you are free to make up your minds as to the hidden and not-so-hidden context and meaning of this recently recorded online conversation.

It must also be noted here that MyTEFL.com has created a hastily put-together blackmail attack (WordPress.org) website, with the sole purpose of manipulating “facts” and in the hope of inflicting maximum damage to their greatest competitors through false, defamatory online content.

Warning 5: The “Group”

In our recent communication with Ben Glickman, he openly threatened that he would reach out and have the “group” attack us further online.

Now, he might delete or edit the information online after reading this, as he has tried to do so all week before reading this, regarding other materials online, but we took a look at the Footprints Recruiting recommended (other) TEFL courses, and you can see the logos of ITTT TEFL (which is their ‘Top Pick” given they share the same made-up accreditation) i-to-i TEFL, and International TEFL Academy.

Please note here that this blog post is not intended to criticize the latter three. However, if we receive similar online defamation we will act accordingly like we have done so here with the MyTEFL.com scam warning post.

Warning 6: Trashing the competition

At first, we wondered whether we were the only ones to have been attacked online by Ben Glickman’s stumpy keyboard fingers and unethical business brain. But, we are not.

We discovered many examples of attempts to trash respectable online TEFL companies that share a more positive image online – companies that provide excellent customer services and excellent customer care.

But what they sow, they tend to reap: MyTEFL and Footprints Recruiting.

And here they are writing sly, under-the-table falsehoods about one of their competitors, Teach Away:

Ben Glickman also decided to attack other online TEFL schools recently.

This is always a red flag and reinforces the growing evidence of The MyTEFL.com Scam.

One of the programs he attacked online, through a proxy website that looks very similar to the type of website he usually gets his (unpaid) interns or (paid) affiliates to create was a direct attack on tefl online pro.

Now, I can sort of fathom why he would feel a bizarre urge to attack trustedteflreviews.com, but why attack tefl online pro?

Ah. Of course! tefl online pro has been voted the Teachers’ Choice Award Winner, in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. Ben feels that MyTEFL.com should have received the award.

Well, Ben. I know that you and your cronies will be reading this, so here are a few words of wisdom for you.

Here is our official statement, and we hope that you can begin focusing on your business products and services, instead of acting like a 2-bit hustler semi-gangster from years gone past:

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.

Thank you, all of you who have taken the time to read this. And as a final note, we thought it only fair to hear from a few not-so-satisfied people who have had dealings with MyTEFL.com/Footprints Recruitment over the relatively few years that both companies have been operating Online TEFL courses and recruitment placements, as our research has concluded that around 95% of the MyTEFL reviews online have very likely been written by Ben’s affiliate spiderweb:

MyTEFL and Footprints Recruiting have now been blacklisted from Trusted TEFL Reviews. What this means, is that their listings will remain on trustedteflreviews.com – we will publish both positive and negative (customer-verified) reviews of their program, and we will also – in the coming weeks – make it clear to everyone visiting trustedteflreviews.com that MyTEFL and Footprints Recruiting has broken the website code of professional conduct, with a direct notice provided with their listings. If the situation changes and MyTEFL and Footprints Recruiting start treating their customers and their competition with professional respect, then we will reconsider taking this notice down.

There are some excellent Online TEFL certification Programs listed on trustedteflreviews.com that go out of their way to provide excellent training and job-hunting support.

We are not going to stand for a few bad apples to ruin it for everyone. And, neither should you.

We welcome any comments in the reply section below.

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 ‘The MyTEFL.com Scam’ article was written by Mia Williams for Trusted TEFL Reviews.

WARNING! We strongly recommend that readers are made fully aware of MyTEFL’s violation of the international TEFL/TESOL Code of Professional Conduct, and examples of further MyTEFL.com scams:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2020/02/02/mytefl-a-code-of-conduct-violation/

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2020/02/18/warning-the-ottsa-accrediting-professionals-scam/

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

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 Warning! The MyTEFL.com Scam appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.