Don't let it intimidate or bother you too much. Yes, there are predators out there, and yes, market makers can be corrupt, but not all of them are, and people manage to make money in the market every day. You can even make money with a scam stock, but you have to know it's a scam, and know when to get out of the stock.
But what all of these things do mean is that it's essential to keep your mind open and KNOW THE SIGNS that something is wrong.
Don't be a pollyana, and please avoid getting sucked into going along with the crowd, who will often try to talk themselves into holding a stock that clearly is being manipulated and diluted.
There are several stocks boards on Ihub, whose stocks have either been halted by the SEC, or are about to be halted by the SEC. Yet if you go to the boards, you will still find posters bending over backwards trying to find a positive interpretation of clearly illegal acts, trying to put the blame on some big evil "they", and not on the CEO, where it belongs. I'm sure these are intelligent people, but they have entered into a state of delusion where their investment is concerned.
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