Is it dangerous? absolutely. But, consider: he is just checking and fixing ATM machines and notifying people of the hack, is not like he is pointing fingers at anything more than "bought out" low-level technicians, and he is a relatively well known American journalist. It is also a super touristic destination where all parties (legit, criminal and semi-criminal) make their money only contingent on it being known to be a "safe destination". Would a criminal enterprise benefit of harming him? Or would it be easier to wait, let him debug all the ATMs he wants and then get a different model of bug and start again 1 month later with what is probably one of many revenue streams for whomever is in charge?
Mexico is a very dangerous place for journalists and becoming more dangerous every year, but even when we hear about Mexican journalists getting murdered, it's usually for pointing fingers much higher up than "ATM hackers" (the most famous recent case has to do with an investigation into a Governor's activities). One has to assume the threshold for causing an international incident is even higher. The people being busted here are "just" scammers, even if embedded within a larger criminal network.
p.s. My only qualification for answering this is having lived in Mexico. I claim no knowledge of criminal structures there other than what is known from general news and culture. I would not bet my own life on this analysis.
Sure. Just saying, there is risky and then there is risky. One wouldn't be all that safe doing this in Detroit either. I just think there are way scarier people out there for which "American Journalist found dead in an alley in Cancun" in the newspapers is not an acceptable mess to have to clean, not over something like this. Not that I would bet on it, though...
Comments
Is it dangerous? absolutely. But, consider: he is just checking and fixing ATM machines and notifying people of the hack, is not like he is pointing fingers at anything more than "bought out" low-level technicians, and he is a relatively well known American journalist. It is also a super touristic destination where all parties (legit, criminal and semi-criminal) make their money only contingent on it being known to be a "safe destination". Would a criminal enterprise benefit of harming him? Or would it be easier to wait, let him debug all the ATMs he wants and then get a different model of bug and start again 1 month later with what is probably one of many revenue streams for whomever is in charge?
Mexico is a very dangerous place for journalists and becoming more dangerous every year, but even when we hear about Mexican journalists getting murdered, it's usually for pointing fingers much higher up than "ATM hackers" (the most famous recent case has to do with an investigation into a Governor's activities). One has to assume the threshold for causing an international incident is even higher. The people being busted here are "just" scammers, even if embedded within a larger criminal network.
p.s. My only qualification for answering this is having lived in Mexico. I claim no knowledge of criminal structures there other than what is known from general news and culture. I would not bet my own life on this analysis.
He is depriving a criminal gang of a source of income. That feels risky!
Sure. Just saying, there is risky and then there is risky. One wouldn't be all that safe doing this in Detroit either. I just think there are way scarier people out there for which "American Journalist found dead in an alley in Cancun" in the newspapers is not an acceptable mess to have to clean, not over something like this. Not that I would bet on it, though...