I never noticed unreliable shutter count info on my cameras. Also I use photoshop to verify EXIf info as well as "EOS Camera Info" on Windows.
Thanks.
I downloaded EOS Camera Info from sourceforge as I was a bit happier about trusting that.
And sure enough it reported the shutter count as 19k.
So I must be grossly underestimating just how many images I have deleted.

Also I guess the image number probably threw me - doesn't it start back at 0 after 9999?
Hence why the lastest images have something like 8800 - so that would indicate something more like the 19k
You sure that your camera was 0 shutter count when you bought it
??
Not unless Canon took lots of test shots at the factory. It was purchased brand new

So at least that is cleared up now. Looks like ML is accurate.