ITTT review, submitted by Matt.

I purchased the 120-Hour online TEFL course and then a week later went to study it and it was gone! I have spent hours trying to reach someone. Finally was able to “create a ticket” and gave them screen shot which proved I had paid 249.00 plus gave them the date of the purchase and other information they asked for and then got an email that because I did not respond, the issue is considered resolved. Absolutely no satisfaction and yes, terrible customer service!

Read more ITTT 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

The 5 Best Online TEFL/TESOL Courses

The post “Absolutely no satisfaction” appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

ITTT review, submitted by Guy.

I had a good experience with the 120-hour TEFL course. I liked how the course taught a combination of teaching grammar and teaching methodology. It (the course) taught me what should be in a lesson and how a lesson should be taught. The only thing is that some of the material is out of date, like the media in the classroom unit, so I think this unit should be updated to reflect the media possibilities for the classroom in 2025. Other than this minor complaint, the course was comprehensive and an enjoyable experience. I did pay for the tutor support and I’m pleased I did because it was reassuring to know there was someone on the other end should I have any questions. Most of the course is self-explanatory (it’s also self-paced) but I did have questions with regard to a few of the more complicated grammar topics, some of which I was discovering for the first time. Overall, the course was challenging yet fun at the same time. Best regards, Guy.

Read more ITTT 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 “Overall, the course was challenging yet fun” appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

ITTT review (https://www.teflonline.net/) submitted by Gabriela.

I completed a TEFL course through ITTT, and while the course itself was passable, the overall experience left me disappointed.

To start with the positives: the course content was fine. It covered the basics of English teaching and was reasonably easy to follow. I wouldn’t say it stood out in any way, but it got the job done although definitely more on the average side.

Where the problems started was with the tutor support, or lack thereof. I paid extra for the tutor-guided option, but I never received any meaningful support. No feedback, no real guidance, just auto-responses and generic information. For something I paid more for, that was frustrating and felt misleading.

Worse still, when I tried to contact ITTT, it was extremely difficult. They have multiple websites, different email addresses, and no clear point of contact. It took me weeks to even get a basic reply, and by then, I had already completed the course. It really felt like a faceless organization and not the professional, supportive team I expected.

Then came the final blow: my certificate took nearly three months to arrive after I finished the course. No clear explanation, just more delays and silence. In an industry where timing can be critical for job applications, that kind of delay is unacceptable.

In the end, while I did receive a certificate and the course met minimum expectations, the lack of support, poor communication, and long wait times made the experience frustrating and not worth the money. I can’t recommend ITTT based on my experience.

Read more ITTT TEFL reviews: https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/ittt/

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 Average Course, Poor Support. Disappointed Overall appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

ITTT review (https://www.teflonline.net/) submitted by Troy.

Wasn’t expecting there to be so many extra costs accrued with this 120-Hour course when I signed up with ITTT. It wasn’t cheap. The ITTT basic 120-Hour course doesn’t come with tutor support. They also don’t give you much time to complete the course and when you ask for an extension they ask for more money. There is an expensive certificate fee at the end as well and they will also charge you for their job placement services. All this isn’t made clear on the ITTT school website. Rather, it’s hidden.

On a more positive note, the course is very good and teaches you what you need to know when planning on teaching English online or in person. I also haven’t experienced any issues when the certificate was presented at interviews.

Read more ITTT TEFL reviews: https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/ittt/

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 ITTT basic 120-Hour course doesn’t come with tutor support”. appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

ITTT review (https://www.teflonline.net/) submitted by Brandon.

I have had a good INDEPENDENT experience. What I mean by that is that I paid for the course without tutor assistance. If you choose the same, understand you are fully on your own. The material is good I have learned a lot and although I have not begun searching for work, I have had some help from ITTT with some links to good websites. The course is useful and includes good resources to help you succeed. It is true they are at the height of helpful in the beginning when you show interest in the course but I wasn’t expecting the red carpet treatment anyway. ITTT does answer emails. It takes a while for them to get back to you but when they do they answer with the information requested. The program is for self-starters and people who are self-driven. I give the ITTT course 3 out of 5.

Read more ITTT reviews: https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/ittt/

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 “I give the ITTT course 3 out of 5” appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

ITTT review (https://www.teflonline.net/) submitted by Grace.

ITTT is a scam program with many websites and many hidden fees. I was charged $200 (US) for my TEFL certificate. I asked where and when the certificate was going to be posted and ITTT lied to me. They wrote me the certificate would be posted from Connecticut within 5 days. When it arrived, it had a Thailand postage stamp on the envelope and it took a month to arrive at my home address in Florida.

This made me want to look further into the ITTT program and I came across this website and got really worried because of the poor reviews. When I read more, I realized this company is a big scam.

ITTT is based in Thailand but claims it has a head office in Hong Kong. Lie #1.

ITTT told me its courses are fully accredited. They are not. Lie #2.

ITTT says it runs TEFL courses all around the world. They don’t. Lie #3.

I found the ITTT program through Linda Dunsmore on Quora. She writes about ITTT a lot and says she took the program and is a satisfied customer who likes to write good things about the program. Linda is actually one of the owners of ITTT and is a prolific grifter on Quora. Lie #4.

If I could give zero stars, I would. I don’t recommend ITTT because ITTT is a scam program.

Read more ITTT reviews: https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/ittt/

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 “ITTT is a scam program” appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

ITTT review, submitted by Graham.

Hiya, Trusted TEFL Reviews. I decided to keep my review short and direct.

Things I liked about the ITTT TEFL Online course:

1. I liked the flexibility of studying online. I didn’t need to travel anywhere to take the course.
2. The course sign-up process was straightforward.

Things I didn’t like about the ITTT TEFL Online course:

1. ITTT market their TEFL courses with job placement, but when you complete the course there is no help with looking for work.
2. I received my ITTT TEFL certificate from Thailand. I thought they were a US-based company.
3. The course was overall too easy, could have done with more video tutorials, and I noticed a few grammar mistakes in the modules.

Overall, I probably wouldn’t recommend ITTT TEFL if asked to do so. The course is quite expensive and the price doesn’t equate to the quality level of the product. Sorry that I can’t write a more positive review.

Read more ITTT 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 course is quite expensive” appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

ITTT review, submitted by Casey.

This is my honest ITTT TEFL review.

1. The course is OK. It is a text-based course, which means that you read a lot of materials and then complete multiple-choice quizzes. I know that some people have an issue with text-heavy courses. I didn’t mind so much. Videos can be a valuable addition when they are done right, but when they are of poor quality or just included for the sake of being included then I think they can be an unnecessary distraction. Besides, there is YouTube if you need to cross-reference any materials.
2. I paid the extra $$$ for a personal tutor, who touched base with me at the beginning of the course. I never heard back from her, despite requesting help along the way. I wouldn’t recommend paying for the tutor support. It is a complete waste of money.
3. When I had completed the course and tied up all the ends, I was a bit shocked that I also had to fork out $$$ for the certificate. It took a while for the delivery. This is because it was sent from Thailand and the international post can be slow sometimes. I did receive a tracking number though and it was fun tracking its movement from east to west.
4. After I’d paid for the certificate and then received it, I never heard back from ITTT TEFL again. They just ghosted me. I could have done with getting some post-course job placement help.
5. The good news is that I have a job now. I’m teaching English online and so far so good. I wasn’t completely dissatisfied with the whole ITTT TEFL training experience, but some of it did suck and I expected more from ITTT TEFL.

Read more ITTT 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 “I expected more from ITTT TEFL” appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

ITTT review, submitted by A.P.

At first thought, this was a good course but the extra costs incurred because of a course extension and hard copy certificate turned this into being much more expensive than I had originally expected. It did feel like I was just another cash cow for them. But the actual course was nicely designed and that is why I give it three stars.

Read more ITTT 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 “much more expensive than I had originally expected.” appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

ITTT review, submitted by Heather.

I liked the flow of the course and I was able to squeeze it into my free time while I was working full-time. There isn’t a rigid timetable or anything like that so you can return to where you last left off whenever you feel like it. I wouldn’t say it is a difficult course, not really easy either- it hits a nice balance between the two. I chose to pay extra for their tutor support, although I now see that some TEFL programs offer this service for free as part of the course price. Response times from ITTT were overall pretty good and I never felt left out in the dark. I’ll be using my TEFL certificate later in the year when I hope to be able to travel abroad to volunteer to teach English in Thailand. My ITTT certificate was posted from Thailand so I’m hoping they can help me with a volunteer job placement over there. Even if you are just going to volunteer to teach, I would still pay to take a TEFL course. Literally from the first module, I knew there were so many things that I didn’t know about teaching English- things that are essential to know if you want to be an effective TEFL teacher. I am happy to recommend ITTT TEFL.

Read more ITTT 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 “I liked the flow of the course” appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

ITTT review, submitted by Amber.

I paid extra for tutor access, but it wasn’t worth it. The instructor sometimes took days before getting back to me and I sensed pushback when I asked questions. I’m not somebody who needs their handheld, but I did have legitimate questions about the course and was hoping for far greater help with these concerns. By the time I got a reply back, I was further on in the course so the answers provided were mostly irrelevant. This left me feeling stupid that I had paid extra for this service and I definitely wouldn’t recommend paying for this tutor support if you are considering ITTT TEFL yourselves. I did like the course though. Despite there being some spelling errors, I thought it covered everything that a new teacher needs when starting out teaching English. Some of the videos were good too, but the main strength of this course is its content. You get to learn a whole load of different aspects of teaching, including some beneficial student activities which I made sure to make a copy of, and they do provide some help with job hunting afterward. It’s not a huge amount of help but it will be enough to point you in the right direction. If you are looking for a basic TEFL Course that will tick the box for getting work then this might be the course for you. However, my advice is to give the ITTT TEFL paid tutor service a miss.

Read more ITTT 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 “my advice is to give the iTTT TEFL paid tutor service a miss” 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

The post Online TEFL TESOL Course Review Scams in 2026 appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

ITTT review, submitted by Benjamin.

My ITTT review is based on my experience of the 120-hour Tefl Tesol certification course, with the addition of the upgrade I paid for personal tutor support. Unlike a lot of the other programs out there, ITTT charges extra for this support.

I thought the course was good. Going into the course, I did have some previous teaching experience (I taught two summer camps) so I had some basic grasp of the concepts of managing/directing a class.

My tutor was helpful with her feedback. It did sometimes take a little longer than I had hoped to get a response back to a question asked, but when I did get a reply it was usually useful in its content. And encouraging too. I really appreciated this.

I didn’t have any red flag moments on the course. All went as planned. You look at the task background information, you complete the task, and you move on to the next task.

I had the option of receiving the free PDF copy of the certificate and paying extra for the hardcopy one. I did pay the extra (I was expecting this charge at the end because I read a lot of ITTT reviews before I enrolled) and I am satisfied with how the certificate looks. When applying for jobs, I haven’t run up against any brick walls because of the certificate. I’m satisfied overall with the choice I made.

Read more ITTT 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 “I’m satisfied overall with the choice I made” appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

ITTT review, submitted by Seth.

The learning material was logically presented but there was no feedback. There wasn’t any feedback because I chose the cheaper course option, which doesn’t include online tutor support. If I were to take the course again, I would choose the more expensive option with online tutor feedback.

I was swayed into taking the online TEFL through the ITTT TEFL program, largely because they seem to be specialized in placing teachers in Korea.

Regarding the learning material, I don’t have anything negative to write. As I wrote, it was logically presented. The material is presented via texts and a handful of video tutorials. The texts are presented well and so are the video components. This is a self-guided course, so once again, if you are completely new to TEFL (as I was) you might want to pay the extra $$ for tutor support.

What stood out for me were the grammar sections. They don’t just teach you the mechanics of grammar but also instruct you on how and when to apply different grammar areas to classroom lesson plans. For me, these were the most useful sections of the course. Before I took the course, I had no idea how to structure a lesson plan. In 20/20 hindsight, the first lesson plan I created was an undisciplined mess of a lesson plan. The course identifies and breaks down the different stages of a lesson plan, so you can condense what you want to be teaching into a 60-minute class. I needed this discipline and towards the end of the course, I was able to differentiate the different sections of a lesson plan which (paying) students would be happy with following in a classroom and which I, as the teacher, would be happy teaching.

If you don’t have any classroom experience, your first attempt at creating a lesson plan will be a sorry attempt, but if you focus on the course, you WILL quickly learn what is, and what isn’t expected within this area.

On a separate note, I found a blog, written by ITTT’s Marketing Manager – Linda Dunsmore – who lived and taught in Korea for many years, her blog is a treasure trove of useful facts and tips for applying for work in Korea. She also covers topics like what you can expect in teaching English in South Korea, the local customs, etc. So for me, a big shout-out goes out to Linda. I understand that she is employed by ITTT, but she never tried to initiate hard-sell tactics for their job placement services.

I was happy with my decision to study through the ITTT TEFL program.

They have a strong online presence and despite not having the best reviews, I just put that down to people who were not motivated enough to get off their couches and look for work on their own.

My final point is that this is an online TEFL course, with no face-to-face interaction. I liked this. It brings down the cost of tuition and means you can study as you go, at your own pace. If I were to take another TEFL course, like an advanced one, I would take it online again. Seems pretty ridiculous to pay $$$$ just for the luxury of the in-class study program tuition.

I’m giving the ITTT TEFL program 3 stars. If I had chosen the more expensive option, with the tutor support, this maybe would have been a 4-star review.

Read more ITTT 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 “I’m giving the ITTT TEFL program 3 stars” appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.