I’ve had quite a few TEFL course providers threaten to sue me over the years, and I consider all of those threats to have been basically down and dirty bullying. The clearest case of actual dirty tricks was when the threat followed a comment being submitted that said “Well I had been looking at courses and after reading this I will certainly not be taking a [EDITED] course.”
Luckily, I instantly thought that the comment looked too plain and to the point to be genuine and so looked at the IP address it came from. Lo and behold, the exact same internet connection had been used by someone to comment in support of that same TEFL course provider (and never on any unconnected topics) many times before. And loer and beholder, an email threatening to sue from that TEFL course provider came along too. They claimed that the suggestion to sue came from people who had taken their course and were worried that I was devaluing their qualifications, so the comment could have been made without the specific knowledge of the TEFL course provider. As proof of financial damage was needed to sue in that country and was specifically mentioned in the threatening emails, however, I very much doubt it.
I also had Paul Lowe of Windsor TEFL contacting everyone he could find who’d associated with me to tell them not to do so. I’d put that down more as nuttiness than dirty tricks, but other TEFL course providers have done the same to others of their critics in a way that I would say show distinctly odd moral judgement.
Ones I have only seen from outside include making up fake blogs, course reviews and forum posts, either in support of themselves or directly attacking their competitors.
Sure I’ve missed loads! Anyone else know any?
Related articles and blog posts:
15 reasons to avoid a TEFL course
What’s the definition of a dodgy TEFL course?
10 misleading claims by TEFL course providers – LINK FIXED
More articles on choosing TEFL courses:
TEFLtastic 