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GoAbroad (goabroad.com) is a work and travel abroad website that claims to offer its readers verified reviews of the programs it lists.In October of 2022, Trusted TEFL Reviews notified GoAbroad that one of the TEFL programs that it was listing was operating under a fake accreditation website; a fake accreditation website that was created by the owner of the TEFL program.
The TEFL program is ITT International TEFL and TESOL Ltd., and it also operates under the name World TEFL Institute.The owner is James Anthony Dwyer; A British ex-pat, living in the Philippines.We contacted GoAbroad to notify them that James owns the accreditation website that he claims independently accredits his TEFL program(s).The name of the accreditation is the International TEFL TESOL Accreditation Council, and its website:
https://www.accreditationteflcouncil.com/
We presented GoAbroad with the facts, as outlined in this Trusted TEFL Reviews article:
https://trustedteflreviews.com/2022/12/07/international-tefl-tesol-accreditation-council/
The response from GoAbroad was puzzling.
They wrote:
“We are now giving ITT International TEFL and TESOL Ltd time to process TEFL accreditation from legitimate accrediting bodies. If they are not able to complete the process within the time given to them, we will be removing their listings from GoAbroad.com.”
It is now May 26th, 2023.
ITT International TEFL and TESOL Ltd. still have the same fake accreditation website falsely claiming that it is an independent TEFL accreditation website, and GoAbroad has done nothing to prevent their readers from purchasing this scam TEFL program's courses.
In addition to having fake accreditation, ITT International TEFL and TESOL Ltd. have been proven to fake their own customer reviews, lie about their charity contributions, run fake Level 3-5 TEFL courses, and even dox their customers who complain about the course and win a chargeback refund of their TEFL course payment.
All of that info can be read in black and white in a related complaint:
ITT International TEFL and TESOL Ltd — Level 3-5 tefl courses online
You can't believe the reviews on GoAbroad if they allow scam companies to be listed on its website.
Incidentally, GoAbroad claims to be a company based in the USA but over 95% of its workforce is based in the Philippines.
It is basically a company operating out of the Philippines; just like ITT International TEFL and TESOL Ltd., and World TEFL Institute.
Desired outcome: Remove ITT International TEFL and TESOL Ltd., and World TEFL Institute from the goabroad.com website.
You may be thinking why didn't GoAbroad simply delist ITT International TEFL and TESOL Ltd. and World TEFL Institute when they were presented with irrefutable evidence that the owner of both programs (James Anthony Dwyer) is so heavily involved in a TEFL program scam?
The plain answer is that the companies listed on GoAbroad are actually GoAbroad's customers.
If you are a user of the GoAbroad website, you are pretty much no one to GoAbroad except internet traffic, and they don't feel responsible to you for any of the programs listed on their website.
Why else would they continue to list James Anthony Dwyer's scam TEFL programs?
It's all about the $$$$.
By banning ITT International TEFL and TESOL Ltd. and World TEFL Institute, they would be reducing a percentage of their revenue stream.
This business model also applies to reviews.
Take ITT International TEFL and TESOL Ltd. for example.
If you look at their listing on GoAbroad, you can see that it is obvious the reviews for the program are pretty much all fake; having been written by the same person (James Anthony Dwyer).
I run a TEFL reviews website and I know that it isn't natural for a TEFL program to receive more than one or perhaps two reviews in one day.
However, on GoAbroad, ITT International TEFL and TESOL Ltd. often receive between 5-10 reviews in one day; reviews that all sound the same.
It doesn't take a genius to work out that GoAbroad allows fake positive reviews to be allowed to be published on the GoAbroad.com website.
It helps its business model because then more people are convinced to purchase one of the TEFL courses or volunteer programs listed on its site; meaning more kickback money for GoAbroad.
Conversely, negative reviews are not conducive to the business model of GoAbroad.com.
A common complaint of people is that they found their positive review published automatically on GoAbroad.com, but their negative review was extremely difficult to have published - it was often never published.
GoOverseas.com follows the same business model.
Given my expert status within the TEFL reviews field, I can, without doubt, state that the vast majority of reviews for the ITT International TEFL and TESOL Ltd. and World TEFL Institute programs on GoAbroad are fake reviews.
OMG! I found this complaint because it was linked to the complaint about the ITT INTERNATIONAL TEFL AND TESOL LTD SCAM that I added my two cents to just 30 minutes ago! I also found the ITT TEFL/TESOL program on GoAbroad and I also believed the reviews written about the program, which to me now are clearly fake reviews. And it faked its own accreditation website?! How many other fake TEFL programs is GoAbroad listing? How do they get away with allowing TEFL companies to leave their own reviews on the GoAbroad website? Why do they allow fake TEFL programs like ITT TEFL to remain on the website?! What a scam!
Erin
Go Abroad needs to be investigated for promoting fake TEFL programs and for allowing fake reviews.
I am another person scammed by James Dwyer.
I hope he gets arrested and rots in a Filipino jail.
Hopefully the word will get out that goabroad.com isn't a trustworthy source for teach and travel information.
I also found ITT International TEFL and TESOL Ltd. on Go Abroad.
I read the reviews and chose the program based on what I thought were honest reviews.
Go Abroad even awarded ITT an award :D
It's obviously a paid award because there is no way on earth that ITT could win a TEFL award.
How could it?
It operates a fake accreditation website, fakes its own reviews, lies about its donations to charity, falsely claims to be government regulated, and sells fake Level3-5 TEFL courses.
James Dwyer should get the 2023 award for TEFL Course Scammer of the Year.
ITT International TEFL and TESOL Ltd. should get the 2023 award for Scam TEFL Course of the Year.
GoAbroad should get the 2023 award for Number 1 Scam Teach and Travel Website.
It's like there's a TEFL mafia going on in the Philippines.
ITT sells its courses from there and GoAbroad runs its website from there.
After my bank recovered my course fee money for me, I contacted the American Embassy in Manila so James might well be asked to explain himself in front of a judge.
On the other hand, it's the Philippines and corruption there is endemic.
That's how ITT and goabroad.com get away with their TEFL scams.