Our refutation of online attacks by 5 business competitors
TEFL Online Pro response to online attacks by business competitors.
Five of our business competitors have written false assertions about the TEFL Online Pro international TEFL/TESOL certification course program.
The TEFL/TESOL industry is highly competitive, and business competitor attacks (by unregulated companies that don’t have an accreditation body to answer to) are commonplace.
The purpose of such attacks is to discredit a competitor and win business for the company instigating the attacks.
Although this can undeniably affect our business revenue, the real victims of this behavior are you, the Customers, who may purchase an alternative TEFL/TESOL course option that isn’t fully accredited or internationally recognized.
This post is long and detailed, and we recommend you read it to the end. We want you to avoid falling for this TEFL scam by these five TEFL competitors.
A. The false assertions
- TEFL Online Pro is the owner of trustedteflreviews.com.
- TEFL Online Pro only has reviews on trustedteflreviews.com.
- TEFL Online Pro is the owner of acteflc.com.
- TEFL Online Pro’s video reviews have been recorded by paid actors.
In addition to these assertions, the five competitors falsely claim that TEFL Online Pro is a fraud/scam and that we are not a legitimate company.
You should also be aware that the vast majority of (if not all) TEFL Facebook Pages and TEFL Reddit Communities are managed by TEFL companies that have a vested interest in subtly promoting their courses over others.
B. Our response to the false assertions
1. TEFL Online Pro does not own trustedteflreviews.com.
TEFL Online Pro is currently the top-rated TEFL/TESOL program listed on trustedteflreviews.com.
teflonlinepro.com and trustedteflreviews.com are both hosted on WordPress – 455 million websites worldwide are hosted on WordPress.
We won the prestigious Teachers’ Choice Award in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022, and we have verified customer reviews published on trustedteflreviews.com.
https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/tefl-online-pro-teachers-choice-award-winner-2022/
The similarity between teflonlinepro.com and trustedteflreviews.com ends there.
In addition, the TEFL Online Pro Facebook Page was created an entire year before the creation of the Trusted TEFL Reviews Facebook Page. If we owned Trusted TEFL Reviews, which we don’t, wouldn’t we have created its Facebook Page around the same time as the Facebook Page for TEFL Online Pro? We definitely wouldn’t have waited a whole year before doing so.
2. TEFL Online Pro does not only have Customer reviews on trustedteflreviews.com.
As well as having verified Customer reviews listed on trustedteflreviews.com, TEFL Online Pro has approximately 100 verified Customer reviews on the TEFL Online Pro company’s Facebook Page. We are a 5-Star rated company on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/teflonlinepro/reviews/
We also have verified Customer video reviews on our company’s YouTube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/@teflonlinepro
3. TEFL Online Pro does not own acteflc.com.
TEFL Online Pro is Fully Accredited by the Accreditation Council for Teaching English as a Foreign Language Courses (ACTEFLC).
ACTEFLC accredits online distance learning and in-class international TEFL/TESL/TESOL certification course programs and is recognized internationally as a reliable authority on educational quality.
As a Fully Accredited course provider, we have the authorization to display the ACTEFLC logo on our school website and our international TEFL/TESOL certificates.
The claim that TEFL Online Pro owns acteflc.com is just as intentionally misleading and far-fetched as the claim that TEFL Online Pro owns trustedteflreviews.com.
4. TEFL Online Pro’s video reviews have not been recorded by paid actors.
TEFL Online Pro currently has eleven Customer video reviews uploaded online, with three graduates having recorded a post-course and follow-up employment video – describing their course experience and how their TEFL Online Pro certificate has enabled them to secure online and overseas teaching English employment.
https://www.youtube.com/@teflonlinepro
All eleven videos have been recorded by graduates of a TEFL Online Pro Online TEFL/TESOL certification course.
None of the reviews were recorded by a person who has not taken a TEFL Online Pro Online TEFL/TESOL certification course.
The majority of our customers that have recorded a video testimonial for us have also left a customer review on the TEFL Online Pro company Facebook page.
TEFL Online Pro is not a fraud/scam. TEFL Online Pro is a legitimate company.
TEFL Online Pro has been a verified business member with Paypal since 2019.
All three TEFL Online Pro certification courses are Fully Accredited and lead to the awarding of the international TEFL/TESOL certificate.
TEFL Online Pro certificates each contain a unique international accreditation number and are authenticated worldwide – they can be apostilled, legalized, and notarized for all online and overseas teaching jobs and visa applications.
If TEFL Online Pro were not legitimate, there would be multiple (verified) complaints made online by our Customers, and Paypal and our international education partners would not continue to partner with us.
Our graduates teach online and on-site in every country in the world where there is a teaching English job market. Our verified customer reviews back up these facts.
C. The intention of the assertions
The intention of the assertions is simply to try and reduce the credibility of TEFL Online Pro in the eyes of potential TEFL student Customers and try and convince potential TEFL student Customers to purchase an alternative TEFL course option.
None of the assertions come from a reputable source.
All four assertions, along with the claims that TEFL Online Pro is a scam and is not a legitimate company, have been published by five of our business competitors.
TEFL Online Pro has sought legal advice and is acting accordingly.
D. Which competitors have made the assertions?
The assertions have been made by ESLinsider, ITT International TEFL and TESOL Ltd., ITTT International TEFL & TESOL Training, MyTEFL, and The TEFL Academy (TTA).
All five are business competitors, providing Online TEFL/TESOL certification training courses.
The ESLinsider (unaccredited) TEFL program is run exclusively by Ian Patrick Leahy. ESLinsider has been banned from Facebook (since 2017) for spamming and publishing misinformation, and it has had a number of its videos deleted by YouTube for the same reasons.
ESLinsider is notorious in the TEFL world for writing fictitious, malicious content about its business competitors – on anonymous complaint websites, discussion forums, Reddit, on the blogs it runs, etc.
Pick any TEFL accreditation body, TEFL program, or TEFL reviews website – ESLinsider will have written some trash about it.
ITT International TEFL and TESOL Ltd. (fake accreditation) is run by James Anthony Dwyer. James is the worst of the worst.
He also runs the World TEFL Institute program.
Both companies are registered in the UK, but James lives full-time in the Philippines.
James writes fake reviews, falsely claims that he gives a percentage of every course fee to charity, owns the accreditation website that he wants you think accredits his courses, has multiple sock puppets online, and sells fake Level 3-5 TEFL courses that are all the same poor-quality course.
Some of his customers have complained of being doxed by James and having their personal information sold online when they got a refund of their course fee from their bank or Paypal. Yikes!
The full extent of this program’s appalling reputation: https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/itt-international-tefl-and-tesol-blacklisted-warning/
ITTT (unaccredited) claims to be based in Hong Kong but is based in Thailand.
This company operates under AT LEAST 15 different websites and the main reason for this is that when it receives a lot of poor reviews for one website, it simply promotes a newly-created website.
ITTT also employs a vast network of affiliate link marketers and brand ambassadors to further its agenda,
ITTT International TEFL and TESOL Training are marketed primarily by Linda Dunsmore, who misleadingly claims that she is just a regular graduate of the program.
MyTEFL (fake accreditation) is a company known for creating smear-campaign websites on its business competitors.
Its marketing manager, Adam K, is the person responsible.
Adam is a bit like Ian from ESLinsider, in that he promotes his TEFL course by attacking TEFL accreditation bodies, TEFL programs, and TEFL reviews websites.
This astroturfing technique is very effective for ESLinsider and MyTEFL. It enables both programs to rank high in organic search results for the companies that they choose to target.
The TEFL Academy TTA (unaccredited) targets any business competitor that it views as being an existential threat to its operations.
Rhyan O’Sullivan and Thomas Gibbons run TTA’s program; they are also responsible for targeting their business competitors.
TTA’s preferred method of attacking its competitors is by posting anonymously on complaint websites. It also takes advantage of its vast network of affiliate link marketers and brand ambassadors to further its agenda.
The individuals behind all five of the above mentioned Online TEFL certification programs:
This is sadly typical of the type of tactic that some disreputable TEFL companies use against their business competition.
In this email, James Anthony Dwyer from ITT International TEFL and TESOL Ltd. is openly writing that he has waged a Google Ads smear campaign against TEFL Online Pro.
James has written a fake review on our Facebook page and has also written fake complaints on questionable complaints websites – using ridiculous usernames to try and further his agenda and paying a click farm to upvote his posts and downvote reviews left by our customers.
His agenda is to defame TEFL Online Pro with a misinformation campaign, while attempting to convince consumers to take one of his courses.
We have reported ITT International TEFL and TESOL Ltd. to the UK Trading Standards.
This is a follow-up email from James Anthony Dwyer; using unprofessional language again, and again reconfirming his intention of attacking our program. We haven’t visited the page that James has created because we know that it will be full of misinformation. If there is a Comments section, it will be full of fake comments, written by James under his many different aliases:
Take anything written online by the above five individuals with a healthy dose of skepticism.
If you read anything negative online about TEFL Online Pro, it was likely written by one of the individuals above.
We understand that not everyone can be satisfied with our products and services.
If and when a customer writes a complaint, we always aim to respond to that customer with complete understanding and to right a wrong.
Currently, though, not one of our customers has written a negative review of TEFL Online Pro. The only negative content written online about TEFL Online Pro has been written by one of the business competitors listed above.
E. Why has TEFL Online Pro published this rebuttal?
First and foremost, we have issued this rebuttal to protect you, the Customer.
Not everyone is aware that the TEFL marketplace is highly competitive and that some TEFL programs do not follow better business practices.
ESLinsider, ITTT International TEFL and TESOL Training, and The TEFL Academy are all unaccredited TEFL programs, and MyTEFL’s accreditation has been proven to be extremely questionable.
The accreditation website of ITT International TEFL and TESOL Ltd. is so obviously fake; taking a stock image from the internet, adding a fake name, and claiming that she (‘Sally King’) is their ‘Compliance Officer’.
We don’t want our potential Customers to be swayed by false information into taking a TEFL course from a TEFL provider that is not fully accredited or internationally recognized.
We regularly receive complaints from people who have been swayed by the misinformation spread by these five programs. These people routinely complain that they were duped into taking a TEFL course – a TEFL course from ESLinsider, ITT International TEFL and TESOL Ltd., ITTT International TEFL and TESOL Training, MyTEFL, or The TEFL Academy – that has turned out not what it claimed to be.
TEFL Online Pro is a transparent, award-winning, fully accredited, reputable program with an excellent reputation.
Our customer feedback is overwhelmingly positive, and we work incredibly hard to maintain our high standards of tuition and post-course services.
We have an extensive worldwide network of education partners. These partners know our brand and routinely employ our teachers.
With a TEFL Online Pro TEFL/TESOL certificate, you are guaranteed a teaching English job online and in any country overseas where there is a teaching English job market.
It is, therefore, imperative that we defend ourselves against false and misleading accusations.
We also chose to issue this rebuttal in support of all the TEFL Online Pro students and graduates that have written or recorded a review of their TEFL Online Pro course and post-course experience.
Content published online by ESLinsider, ITT International TEFL and TESOL Ltd., ITTT International TEFL and TESOL Training, MyTEFL, and The TEFL Academy, about TEFL accreditation bodies, TEFL program competitors, and TEFL review websites is not a reliable source of information.
Content published online by an affiliate link marketer about any TEFL accreditation body, TEFL program competitor, and TEFL review website – regardless of whether the content is positive or negative – is not a reliable source of information.
Affiliate link marketers will write anything to try and convince you to buy a TEFL course when they stand to earn a 20% student referral sales commission – a 20% commission added to the regular price of the TEFL course.
TEFL Online Pro does not run an affiliate’s marketing program.
We point-blank refuse to be listed on any websites that operate on an affiliate’s marketing sales business model; GoAbroad and GoOverseas being two examples.
As a result, it appears that we are considered “fair game” by some of the unscrupulous affiliate link marketers that earnestly try to trash our excellent reputation in order to drive traffic to their website(s) where they earn commission sales from the TEFL programs they “highly recommend.”
Reputable TEFL/TESOL programs don’t operate an affiliate link marketers program
F. TEFL Online Pro verified customer feedback
Verified TEFL Online Pro Customer feedback can be viewed on the TEFL Online Pro school website, on our company Facebook Page, on the TEFL Online Pro YouTube channel, and on the independent TEFL reviews website Trusted TEFL Reviews:
https://teflonlinepro.com/tefl-online-pro-reviews/
https://www.facebook.com/teflonlinepro/reviews/
https://www.youtube.com/@teflonlinepro
https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/tefl-online-pro-teachers-choice-award-winner-2022/
Three of our Customers, who recently graduated from a TEFL Online Pro international TEFL/TESOL course, recorded a post-course and TEFL employment follow-up video testimonial:
1a. Clara Vinthagen’s post-course video reviews her 120-Hour Professional certification course experience.
1b. Clara Vinthagen’s TEFL employment follow-up video reviews how her TEFL Online Pro TEFL/TESOL certificate was instrumental in finding teaching work online and how it has been an essential document for successfully securing a teaching English position abroad at an international language school in Spain.
2a. Astrid Mendieta’s post-course video reviews her 120-Hour Professional certification course experience.
2b. Astrid Mendieta’s TEFL employment follow-up video describes how her TEFL Online Pro TEFL/TESOL certificate was instrumental in landing teaching English job interviews in Japan, South Korea, and Spain. This certification has also been an essential document for the purpose of teaching English online for a reputable training company. Astrid also describes how her TEFL Online Pro certification has been an essential document for successfully securing a TEFL position abroad at a high school in Valencia, Spain.
3a. Noor Yafaie’s post-course video reviews her 140-Hour Hybrid certification course experience.
3b. Noor Yafaie’s TEFL employment follow-up video reviews how her TEFL Online Pro TEFL/TESOL certificate was instrumental in finding teaching work online with PalFish and Preply and how it has been an essential document for successfully securing a teaching English position abroad at a government school in South Korea.
Astrid, Clara, and Noors’ experiences are representative of all of our Customers who take a TEFL Online Pro Online TEFL/TESOL certification course.
TEFL Online Pro accepts students from all native English-speaking countries, as well as students from non-native English-speaking countries.
G. Conclusion
After winning the Teachers’ Choice Award for the first time, in 2019, TEFL Online Pro veered onto the radar of the larger TEFL course providers and it was soon after that we noticed some online attacks by business competitors.
When we won the prestigious award for the second and then the third time, TEFL Online Pro increasingly became a target for online attacks.
We have now won the Teachers’ Choice Award for the fourth year in a row.
None of the attacks were instigated by a TEFL Online Pro Customer or a TEFL Online Pro education partner. Any such attacks were instigated by a TEFL program business competitor.
The most important thing for us is that the vast majority of our Customers provide overwhelmingly positive feedback on our courses and services and that they recommend us after taking one of our fully accredited and internationally recognized TEFL/TESOL certification courses.
We just thought that you should be made aware that there are an awful lot of people trying to make money from TEFL, and that some of them will go to extraordinary lengths in order to do so.
A large number of TEFL programs comply with strict codes of business practice and focus on developing their products and services.
A few TEFL programs, on the other hand, operate with limited reliance on codes of business practice and tend to focus solely on extracting as much money as they possibly can from their Customers – by whichever means is possible.
TEFL Online Pro belongs to the former.
If there are any questions regarding this rebuttal statement, please feel free to contact the TEFL Online Pro school office: https://teflonlinepro.com/contact-us/
Thank you for reading this rebuttal statement.
Kind regards,
Paul Murphy | Operations Manager | TEFL Online Pro
https://teflonlinepro.com/enroll/
https://www.youtube.com/@teflonlinepro
https://www.facebook.com/teflonlinepro/reviews/
https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/tefl-online-pro-teachers-choice-award-winner-2022/
The Teachers’ Choice Award winner in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022
https://www.acteflc.com/ Fully Accredited TEFL Course Provider
TEFL Online Pro pages:
https://teflonlinepro.com/tefl-courses-online-and-combined/
https://teflonlinepro.com/60-hour-fast-track/
https://teflonlinepro.com/120-hour-professional/
https://teflonlinepro.com/140-hour-hybrid/
https://teflonlinepro.com/accreditation/
https://teflonlinepro.com/discounts/
https://teflonlinepro.com/tefl-online-pro-reviews/
https://teflonlinepro.com/tefl-jobs/
https://teflonlinepro.com/faqs/
https://teflonlinepro.com/about/
https://teflonlinepro.com/tefl-certification-news/
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https://teflonlinepro.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-teaching-english-online/
https://teflonlinepro.com/best-online-tefl-certification/
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