This video demonstrates the need for TEFL Blacklists and WhiteLists

[Vagabond]

Sorry to say friends, but the Language Industry and the overseas expat job markets are rife with scams and dozens of very sophisticated frauds that even fool some of the brightest people. No, it is not just limited to China and Africa. They are hidden and well disguised land mines that you discover the hard way in most cases. This humorous but factual video lays out the reason why over 250,000 TEFL teachers get scammed alive every month (Interpol). https://reddit.com/r/CFTU/comments/l319 ... _it_is_so/ The video was made by Canada's national television network.

Aside from this video, other great tricks that are used include:

* Bait and switching

* Fake review sites

* Paid shill testimonials

* False claims of government endorsements

* False claims of University affiliations

* Dozens of photo-shopped pictures with foreign government leaders

* Vague and ambiguous contracts, often in foreign languages

* Hidden fees and bogus "deposits"

* The "Name Game"

* Fake tax deductions

To be clear, professional scam artists simply prey on wannabe foreign teachers and expats who just arrive and are still ignorant about local laws, employee rights, and SOP. The only way to cope with these crooks is to see and know what happened to those already ripped off by these people. This is my suggestion for a strong defense, since I believe in prevention, not expensive law suits. As my dad used to tell me at least once a month... "It is better to learn from the mistakes of others than your own!" See what you think: https://ruqqus.com/+ExpatTeachersAssoci ... s-the-tefl

[John V55]

Absolutely agree Vagabond. The whole privatized TEFL business is a scam and you’re quite right when you state we could learn from others. The ‘others’ I assume are the ones sitting in deportation centres who were enticed by promises of ¥30/40K a month and/or the anonymous webpages warning of scams whilst promoting the same fantasies on reddit, wordpress and ruqqus. It is indeed a minefield out there, but only for the gullible and/or greedy.

I recently came across this website and although a self-confessed recruitment site, it gives unbiased comparisons between opting for professionally run state education, or the scam ridden ‘monkeys for hire’ private sector.
https://chinabyteaching.com/teaching-in ... -schools/

This is more like it and will certainly get a positive mention in my forthcoming independent TEFL guide, not so the scammy sites that entice the gullible and greedy and we both know who is behind all this. :)

[Cricket]

Both John and Vagabond are correct. We had this little debate on another thread. Working in a private school or university in China is 99% guaranteed to be safe and stable. Howvere, the amount of income between a good private school that is white-listed (SAFEA REGISTERED WITH A SAIC BUSINESS LICENSE) and a public school is like night and day. At best you will earn 15,000 rmb with a public school, including the housing allowance, and at a good private international school you are looking at 30,000 a month, including the housing allowance. Money ma not be important to you but if it is, use the white or blacklists you can find on Reddit or Ruqqus from the CTA, CFTU, ETA, or ChinaScamWatch.org and grab a good paying job. Try here https://reddit.com/r/ChinaTeachers . Otherwise you will be like these two teachers who work at a public school somewhere in the boonies...



Also remember two other things; 1) Only 20% of the private schools are corrupt and cheat teachers, but they got so much publicity in the past and present that all the private schools are wrongly tainted by them. And 2) Not all of the scammers are Chinese, since dozens of fellow-foreigners who have learned from the Chinese con artists and now operate the most brazen scams from all over the word, not just in China. Put the white and blacklists to good use and you will have the best of both worlds - safety and $$$$$.

[John V55]

Can we have more links to anonymous pages from opnlttr, ruqqus and reditt please. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBcY3W5WgNU

[Vagabond]

It has been my experience in the TEFL world, that people who object to white or blacklists are generally those that have been exposed on the latter. It has also been my experience that those people or companies that are blacklisted will also have a loooooong history of complaints all over the internet going back years. Proof of this can be found at https://reddit.com/r/teflreviews or https://reddit.com.r.teflscams/ or https://ruqqus.com/+TEFLblacklist or any scam reporting site that has been around more than five years. Here are just three examples but there are virtually over 50 such examples I could post, but then old John would start accusing me of spamming even though I am only posting links that prove my point.

https://realscam.com/search.php?searchid=1474746

https://realscam.com/f51/fraud-alert-lo ... -u-k-5519/

https://realscam.com/f51/victims-top-20 ... ight=Rosie

And because the internet protects the identities of people, the TEFL fraudsters are constantly playing the name game and change their names every time they get exposed to an entire forum, and then when the forum deletes the warning, it is proof that either the forum itself is a front for identity thieves, or is taking advertising money from known scammers that have been named in the posts that were deleted. It truly is a cat and mouse game, and that is why you will see new white and blacklists every year because they have to keep up with all the new alias names being used to advertise and recruit on the net.

The other ploy they use is to create user accounts on a forum and wait for some newbie to stumble in with questions and then suddenly become the welcoming father or mother user posing as a helpful senior teacher who publicly offers words of advice and comfort or reassurance, and then privately send the newbie PMs referring them to a known scammer for a referral fee, maybe $150 - $300 for each new victim. That person could be 20, 35, or 50 years olds named Tom Gazuski (example only) but could appear on the forum as "James" with a photo of a harmless old man or lady. They can work as a "mole" so to speak for years on most any forum and go undetected, and the victims will never put 2 and 2 together when 3 months after asking a simple question on Super TEFL Forum (another example) was referred by PM to a "great contact for jobs in China, Korea, or wherever) was really a identity thief or hopefully just a resume broker.

This is so common guys. I went o a seminar in 2017 hosted jointly by SAFEA and the CFTU and there was a 30 minute presentation about these TEFL vultures and the very clever ways they fish for victims every day online. The China Scam Patrol gave that 30 minute presentation and showed how easy it was to do all of the above and a lot more. Read this and you will see just how easy it is to become a victim in any job search, but especially in China: https://chinaScamwatch.wordpress.com

I am not accusing "John" here of anything. He always seems friendly and helpful to people. But I don't know him personally and John could just be a screen/user name and the resume he has posted online more than 300 times (why is this not spam since it is the identical post up to 5 times a day on just this one forum? By comparison, I only post different links that are related to the points I am trying to make). And that point is that nobody applying for a job in another country where they know nothing, should be trusting any one stranger to lead them by the hand. USE YOUR OWN BRAIN , DO YOUR OWN INVESTIGATION, AND SEE WHAT OTHERS HAVE TO SAY AFTER TAKING PATHS LIKE THE ONE YOU ARE NOW ABOUT TO TAKE.

I can only recommend you consider the "7 question checklist" which I used for a few years and it kept me and my money safe:https://opnlttr.com/letter/china-esl-te ... am-artists (as you can see, this was published by the China Scam Patrol a few years ago. Some of my colleagues prefer to use this 25 point checklist which is also good; https://eslwatch.info/en/articles/asia- ... nteed.html and got 5 stars from the 18,000+ viewers. Or you can listen to an anonymous PM and roll the dice. It's your life, your money, and certainly your choice. Good luck to all who read my two cents here!

[John V55]

It's like playing a musical chairs tag team with you two. :) Here’s something I wrote a few years ago and I’d forgotten about. It's not something that hasn't been known for a long time.

http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/blog/articles/39068.html
‘Into this toxic mix appear the legions of scam 'patrols', 'busters' and 'unions', all blaming recruiters and aghast at the number of arrests and deportations. Meanwhile, the website links exposing fraudulent recruiters grow ever longer, perhaps not realising that they exist as a result of the large numbers willing to participate in the lucrative market of supply and demand. What exactly is the point, other than to indicate the obvious? Once exposed, a simple switch of 'phone numbers and an email address ensures it continues.’

[Vagabond]

Very well-written and useful articles John. Thanks for sharing. Even though the articles are a few years old, most of what you said still applies. To be clear, people need to use common sense and caution when choosing any employment abroad where the onus is on them to learn the local laws, norms, culture, and scam landscape. You are good writer John.

[Atlas]

Great video. Thanks for sharing that with us.

[Cricket]

I was just discussing this topic with my better half, and we came to the conclusion that it doesn't matter who is on any blacklist, or even how they got on it, or even why. It would be better just to focus on the white-list because we would have the peace of mind knowing that all those TEFL employers have legitimate business licenses and an honorable track record according to teachers, not some fake review sites

Unfortunately I can only find the whitelist from 2018, but there seem plenty of employers there to pick from (about 500) https://www.scribd.com/document/3718193 ... n-Teachers Besides, as my mom always told me... "Think positive and stay away from negative energy" If I come across a later edition of this in my travels, I will update this thread and you guys can do the same.

[Vagabond]

My partner found the 2020 White List on Reddit at this sub. https://reddit.com/r/tefl_tips_traps_scams but since John will get upset if I put the exact link you will just have to scroll down and look for it.

[John V55]

I’m not upset. A link from scribd.com on a CFTU page which you can’t read from Cricket.
‘To access this document, upload one of yours, or subscribe with a 30 day free trial. Cancel anytime.’
Followed by a reddit page of spam links by Vagabond.
Should I be surprised?

[Vagabond]

And to download and read your resume from your spam link site, people have to give away their personal information! No Thank You John!

[Cricket]

TEFL HORROR STORIES



If you really think you are astute enough to spot your own scams, you may want to read up here...

https://www.reddit.com/r/TEFL_TIPS_TRAP ... ching_job/

https://ruqqus.com/+TEFLScams/post/787f ... mmed-alive

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzUxMT ... 83f1551#rd

https://opnlttr.com/search/node/China%20Scam%20Patrol

https://www.reddit.com/r/TEFL/comments/ ... r_stories/

https://ruqqus.com/+TeachInChina/search?q=horror+story

https://chinascampatrol.wordpress.com

https://chinascamwatch.wordpress.com

[Prometheus]

Great video OP. I was teaching in Beijing when those busts were going down. I remember that a lot of fake teachers were calling in sick after the first 300 teachers were snatched. Some even took vacations to the countryside in Huairou and Yanshan to hide, but they actually stuck out even more! In the end 17 of my foreign friends and neighbors were arrested, thrown in jail for 30 days, had to pay 10,000 rmb in fines and then deported with re-entry bans. The worst part of it all is that they got flagged on all the government computers as "illegal migrant workers" and my one pal Brad could not even get a visa to go to his sisters wedding in Spain. But they all knew they were risking their freedom when they agreed to work without Z visas so I really don't have any sympathy for them. Do you?

[Tiger]

That is a great video! It reminds me when my boss asked me "Would you like to make an extra 3,000 rmb cash"? When I asked him how he said he wanted me to to make a 2 minute video testimonial for his sister who owns a study abroad business in Shanghai. When I declined he offered me $1,000 USD. Regretfully I took it so I could have enough money to take a vacation. I swear I will never do that again, because once I did the video lying my ass off about what a great program she had, she made me stand in front of a poster that said "2,500+ satisfied clients since 2012" when in fact she had only been open a year back in 2018! I had such an attack of guilt that used a sock puppet account to expose her on Wei Bo and We Chat, and a handful of Chinese forums. So, yeah, I know that what we see on-line is seldom the truth if it involves anything for sale.

[Atlas]

Personally, I think this post should be a sticky since this video is timeless and will always be a wake up call for expats everywehere and especially in Asia where ripping off foreign teachers seems to have become a national pastime!

[mikehards1]

Trusted TEFL Reviews is the biggest fake review site. Run by Neville David Thomas to promote TEFL Online Pro and recently set up a fake accreditation ACTEFLC (what does it even mean?) all for TEFL Online Pro.

Here you will find screenshots of Neville Thomas advertising his scam review site and TEFL course on Facebook https://www.complaintsboard.com/tefl-on ... e-c1212899

[Blue Moon]

This video only shows half of the story. Its what you do NOT see that will trap you into some teaching or internship scam where you cannot even call the police because the scammers made you part of their illegal operation. So reporting it to the cops (thinking you will get your money) will actually get you arrested, jailed, and deported! People that warn about this online get their scam alert posts deleted by paid hackers. Here is one company that got caught in the act of hacking away dozens of warning posts https://www.docdroid.net/cXYfTCq/laowaicareerscam-pdf