Is it legit? Check before you apply.

The five minute scam check

Scam schools exist across the ESL world. They take teacher deposits for jobs that vanish overnight. Run this check before you hand over personal documents, then look at our source-dated data on the platforms we have checked.

Our standard is simple. A platform must advertise its pay range in public and list its requirements openly on its teacher page. Each figure carries the date we checked it.

1. 

   Does the school ask you for money?

   A deposit, a training fee, an equipment fee or a placement fee means walk away. Those listings are banned on our board under the listing policy.

2. 

   Is the pay stated in writing?

   If a recruiter will not put the rate, the pay model and the deductions in writing, you cannot compare the offer in a sensible way.

3. 

   Does the company exist outside the job ad?

   Check its own site, independent reviews and what other teachers say. One polished ad is not a business history.

4. 

   Are the contract terms specific?

   Look for the currency, the payout date and the cancellation terms. Use our contract checklist before you sign.

5. 

   Trust your own search

   Search for “company name scam” and “company name pay Reddit”. Read the patterns, not one glowing testimonial or one angry post.

Money requests that mean stop

The first check in the list above matters most. A real employer pays you. Money that flows the other way is a warning. These are the requests we read as a stop sign. None of them is a normal cost of getting a teaching job.

• A fee to apply or to be interviewed. Never pay to apply, and never pay to interview. The employer wants you. The hiring cost is theirs to carry.

• A “visa processing” or “placement” fee. Do not pay a recruiter or a school to handle your visa or to place you in a job. Legitimate employers do not charge teachers for this, and applying to a public or government programme is normally free. A real government fee is different. If a government office charges for your own documents, you pay that office directly, not the person who is hiring you.

• An invoice from “HR” on Telegram, WhatsApp or a personal email. A payment request that reaches you through a chat app or a free email account is not normal hiring. Do not pay it.

• Equipment or “training materials” you must buy first. If you have to pay a recruiter for a laptop, a headset or a materials pack before you start, treat that as a warning sign. A genuine employer tells you what you need. It does not sell it to you.

What to do instead. Check the employer’s own website and open the application page there. Look for messages that come from a company email domain, not a personal address. If a listing asks you for money, tell us at support@plainchalk.com and we will check it against the source. Listings that charge teachers are banned under the listing policy.

The major platforms, checked for pay transparency

When we label a platform “pay-transparent”, it means the platform publishes its own rate, in the unit it pays — per hour, per minute or per lesson — where we can verify it. It does not mean every teacher earns the ceiling or keeps that exact sum after platform fees. The requirements column shows which of a degree, a teaching certificate and prior experience the application page lists; “not published” means we could not find its hiring rules. We track verifiable public numbers, not corporate marketing claims.

Every row above reflects the platform’s advertised pay and application-page requirements checked in our data, source-dated on each listing (listing policy). Non-native policy evidence and the limitations of each claim are documented in our non-native hiring guide.

The one rule that prevents most scams

Real employers pay you. A school may ask you to show your skills in an interview, to finish normal onboarding, or to provide documents the law requires. It should not ask you to buy a job with a deposit, a recruitment fee, a placement fee, a mandatory paid training course or an equipment charge. Plain Chalk bans those listings — along with visa-mill postings — because teachers should not have to gamble money to find work. Read the full listing policy, and report anything that breaks it. We check reported listings against the source.

ESL scam checks: your questions

How do I know if an ESL school is legit?

Start with the basics: a real employer does not ask you for a deposit, a training fee, an equipment fee or a placement fee. Check that pay is stated in writing, that the company exists outside the job ad, and that the contract names the currency, the payout date and the cancellation terms. Search the company name with “scam” and “pay Reddit”, and check the application page yourself.

Should I ever pay to get a teaching job?

No. Never pay a school, a recruiter or a platform a deposit, a recruitment fee, a training fee or an equipment fee in exchange for a teaching job. Real employers pay teachers. Walk away and report the listing if someone asks you for money to access work. We check reported listings against the source.

What is the most common ESL job scam?

Most scams follow the same pattern. A fake or misleading school promises steady classes, then asks the teacher to pay upfront for placement, training, equipment or visa processing. Other warning signs are missing pay figures, vague contracts, and companies with no presence beyond a single job ad.

Listings follow our listing policy — always confirm final terms with each platform.