The OTTSA – Online Tefl and Tesol Standards Agency – Accrediting professionals scam.
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 actually advise reading the MyTEFL.com scam post before then 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 own 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 in order 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 in fact, 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:
But how can we really know that this is a fake accreditation website?
- If you contact OTTSA, you will never receive a reply. They are definitely not in the business of encouraging more members to join their fat cow laid out to graze.
- The website connection is not secure:
3. Their “Accredited courses” page really 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.
And 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 are 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 really 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 in order 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/
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
And this is what one recent reviewer wrote, regarding her experience with ottsa Accrediting professionals:
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/
Mia Williams
As OTTSA’s Principal Moderator, I was both surprised and disappointed to have found this content. We have no record of being contacted regarding any issues raised in this article. We have been operating independently since 2010 with the intention of giving companies the opportunity to have regular independent reviews of course content, systems, and service to candidates. Our website makes it quite clear who we are, and I would be happy to answer any questions via email.
Simon Godwin.
The issue at hand though is that people have tried to contact you, prior to this comment being published on trustedteflreviews.com, and no replies were forthwith. This has been well documented. Schools have found it extremely strange that, when they wrote asking about the accreditation process, they received no answer back.
Surely, you yourself as a Principal Moderator (if that is an authentic title in this case) should understand that this doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. In fact, it looks a little as though you are now willing to answer emails as a direct response to this post. But, perhaps I am wrong.
Since you decided to come on here and publish your comment of your own volition, perhaps you wouldn’t mind answering a few questions for us?
1. Your comment was received from a Thailand IP address. What is your connection to Thailand?
2. Where are your accreditation offices located?
3. What experience and contacts in the industry give you the authority to provide accreditation?
4. Why are you so willing now to respond to emails when previously there wasn’t even a murmur from your end when people tried to get in touch with you?
5. And finally, if you are indeed an accreditation organization then what is your accreditation provider identity number? Where are you registered as being officially recognized as a provider of accreditation?
Mia Williams.
Hi Mia,
we currently have 12 companies who we value as customers. Our intention is simply to help them develop their courses for the benefit of course participants and themselves.
There is no “scam” and we pride ourselves on the service we provide. For whatever reason, we have no record of receiving any queries from you, and certainly regularly receive messages from a variety of sources, which are always replied to. Perhaps there is a system error of some sort. If you have well documented examples, please send them to me and I will respond personally. I can be contacted directly at moderator@ottsa.org
Our “Who are we?” page includes detailed personal information about us. We are a small partnership with clearly stated aims and are at a loss to understand the reason for such an attack. I am currently based in Thailand, but can work from anywhere…once the situation allows that is!
Thank you for honouring the right to reply but, after internal discussion, we feel this is as far as we are prepared to go in a forum such as this.
Simon Godwin.
I’m afraid your reply has only raised further red flags.
It is apparent that you would rather people contact you directly at your email. You made that clear from the start. But if you are an international accreditation agency – a real one, one which is recognized and above board – then why the avoidance of transparency? We asked you some very basic questions that should be softball questions for an agency, as you purport yourselves to be, but you haven’t answered any of them.
To provide you with an additional opportunity to clear things up for our readers, here are our (softball) questions for you again – some additional *notes have also been added to two of the questions in response to your reply:
1. Your comment was received from a Thailand IP address. What is your connection to Thailand?
* You replied: ‘I am currently based in Thailand, but can work from anywhere…once the situation allows that is!’.
This makes you seem like a one-man show. Is this correct?
2. Where are your accreditation offices located?
3. What experience and contacts in the industry give you the authority to provide accreditation?
4. Why are you so willing now to respond to emails when previously there wasn’t even a murmur from your end when people tried to get in touch with you?
* You replied: ‘For whatever reason, we have no record of receiving any queries from you, and certainly regularly receive messages from a variety of sources, which are always replied to.’
I wasn’t just referring to my emails, I was referring to a number of schools that tried contacting OTTSA in the past – asking about accreditation steps – but without any response from you.
Surely, if you are a real organization then you would jump at the chance of welcoming more schools into your organization.
5. If you are indeed an accreditation organization then what is your accreditation provider identity number? Where are you registered as being officially recognized as a provider of accreditation?
6. And finally, it appears obvious to me that you are connected to two specific schools. You list a number of schools that you claim to accredit, but when we first checked those schools they were basically empty shell schools – seemingly intended to add volume to your list of accredited organizations. We Googled those schools and saw that they had no footprint on the internet other than on your OTTSA website. After publishing this post, after a few days, those websites had been edited to make them appear to be more plausible. How do you explain this?
If you can satisfactorily answer these very basic questions, we will delete this post and sincerely apologize in the process.
Mia Williams.
Simon Godwin.
It appears that you are a former building projects manager, from the UK, and that you moved to Thailand in 2002 – starting a new life as an English teacher:
https://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/560086.tourists-urged-to-return/
I completely admire your determination to transition into a different field of employment.
However, our readers wish to know the answers to the questions that have been asked of the accreditation organization that you began – OTTSA.
I’m really trying to help you out here. If you can answer, in a transparent manner, the questions raised then we will delete this post and apologize in the process.
However, if OTTSA is little more than another shady accreditation website then we believe that our readers should be made aware of the fact.
Mia Williams.