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Things like future revenue forecasts etc is a case were people put too much weight on what professionals say and so can fall prey to incorrect advise or worse, fixed advice. The case is stocks and shares all follow trends, and top companies all have things to look out for in their quarterly reports which show you whether its failing or on the brink of success. Maybe I'm not as familiar with things like misrepresented future forecasts because that's not something we are taught to put too much emphasis on when deciding the stocks. I can understand what you mean more now though when you talk about corruption. The bank I don't rate as I wouldn't invest in them anyway, but again I understood what you meant by your last line of if banks are doing it why not other companies.

I do firmly believe though, that unless a company blatantly lies in its report about how much it's earned, it's assets and liabilities etc, then you are fine. You just need to know what to look out for. The idea of misrepresenting future revenue is similar to what I mentioned about companies tailoring their reports to make them look like big winners. All their figures are correct but they don't mean much at all. At the end of the day companies want you to invest and they will sweet talk you as much as it takes, but, unless they lie about their current situation with incorrect figures (current not future projections) a good investor will be able to see the company's true worth.