The OTTSA – Online Tefl and Tesol Standards Agency – Accrediting Professionals scam.

December 9, 2023 UPDATE:

It appears that OTTSA has now closed down and the TEFL companies that partnered with this fake accreditation website have flown over to other fake TEFL accreditation websites.

A fine example of this is MyTEFL, which now claims to be accredited by the International TEFL Accreditation Council (ITEFLAC) and by the International Council for Online Educational Standards (ICOES).

ITEFLAC is a fake accreditation body – one red flag being the stock images on the website that hope to allure the unsuspecting into thinking it is an organization located in an office building, and full of suited men and women whose only care in the world is TEFL and TESOL accreditation.

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’. Oh, and MyTEFL and International Open Academy – two TEFL companies with a terrible reputation.

ITTT, on the other hand, has gone rogue and teamed up with an accreditation body that can’t even spell the word ‘Accreditation’ correctly on its website:

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

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Mia Williams – Trusted TEFL Reviews

In a previous scam article, we wrote about being defamed online, and it became quickly crystal clear to us that the company orchestrating the spreading of the false allegations online about trustedteflreviews.com, was MyTEFL.com.

We would advise reading the MyTEFL.com scam post before coming back to this post, as then you will have a clearer picture regarding why we have chosen to expose MyTEFL and their rather dubious business practices.

Both MyTEFL and ITTT TEFL claim to be accredited by OTTSA.

‘OTTSA’ btw, is an acronym for ONLINE TEFL & TESOL STANDARDS AGENCY.

And at first glance, it looks impressive.

It was created by an individual who happened to travel to Thailand to become an English teacher, and who then happened to create his accreditation website.

His name: is Simon Godwin.

Here you can read about the creator of OTTSA:

https://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/560086.tourists-urged-to-return/

There are three levels of accreditation:

Unaccredited

Accredited

Fully accredited, and internationally recognized.

Online TEFL/TESOL programs that are accredited by OTTSA are categorized as ‘Accredited’.

This means that the certificate awarded is not necessarily internationally recognized.

Further information here:

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

On the OTTSA main page is what appears at first glance to be a professional statement:

Again, it looks impressive.

The one issue with this though, is that it is an outright scam.

What is particularly painful here is that this fake accreditation website has been developed to pull the wool over people’s eyes and to get them to make that course purchase because they will probably assume that OTTSA is an internationally recognized accreditation body.

This couldn’t be further from the truth, and, only this week, trustedteflreviews.com received a scathing MyTEFL.com review where the reviewer’s employer refused her a teaching position because their school didn’t want one of their teachers to be associated with a fake accreditation scheme:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2020/02/13/needless-to-say-i-shall-be-contacting-my-credit-card-company-for-a-full-refund-on-the-mytefl-purchase/

But how can we know that this is a fake accreditation website?

1. If you contact OTTSA, you will never receive a reply. They are not in the business of encouraging more members to join their fat cow laid out to graze.
2. The website connection is not secure:

3. Their “Accredited courses” page gives the game away

The companies that OTTSA claim went through a vigorous accreditation application process, and was successful in being accepted to such a prestigious accreditation organization are:

1. ITTT TEFL

2. XploreAsia

3. MyTEFL

4. CultureRoute

5. TESOL Coach Master Inc. by The American Global TESOL Association, LLC:

6. Promise Opens Doors

7. TEFLMaster

8.TESOL Professional Teachers Global Limited

9. TEFL Tycoon by Chelsea International Education LLC

Now, besides ITTT TEFL being the only Online TEFL school listed with a live link to their website, we thought we would take a look at a few of the other (unknown) Online TEFL schools (besides MyTEFL.com, which are now very well-known to us.)

And what a shock!

When we checked last week, the remaining 7 websites looked very different than they did when we checked again this afternoon.

Last week there were ridiculously high course offers for 120-hour Online TEFL courses, such as $2,000, but we know how quick the MyTEFL.com Asian team can be in manipulating websites and they have now made the remaining 7 look almost plausible Online TEFL course options.

But of course, again, if you look closely, you can recognize immediately that these are hastily-created websites, without any other significant presence on the web.

Now they spell their accreditation company in capitals all of a sudden

What does OTTSA do?

OTTSA is a fake website that attempts, rather well, to scam money from people searching online for accredited Online TEFL courses (which by definition don’t exist.)

Now, we would love to be wrong. As we would have loved to have been wrong about the MyTEFL and Footprints Recruiting scams.

Everything we have written is non-defamatory. It is the truth.

Perhaps that’s why the only responses that we have received so far have been vulgar, private comments – threatening us with further online defamation and online attacks if we continue down this path of exposing this well-established corrupt corner of the international Online TEFL certification industry.

I was even insulted by an insinuation that I am a “dike”. The comment received read: ‘Your website is a disgrace and payback is coming your way. You’re just a dike with brains about the TEFL world.

My response was that the correct spelling is, “dyke” and that whatever my sexual preference, it is my business only – and my boyfriend’s too if you want to know

I then laughed when I signed my comment response as Mia Williams – “just a dike with brains about the TEFL world”

Btw, as a quick thought and a message that I feel is important to all readers: don’t ever give a fuc* about what someone says about your choice of sexuality. It’s none of their business, and it’s SO 1990 even to bring up the theme.

Again though, not all Online TEFL programs behave in such an appalling manner to get a hold of your hard-earned cash.

If you are reading this and are searching for honest, reputable Online TEFL certification companies then may we suggest you view our Online TEFL Courses Directory:

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

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.

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:

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

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

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