American Express marketing USB gadget – Safe?
Posted By RichC on May 3, 2010
American Express continues their rich and creative advertising using USB technology computer technology to entice card members 
and ‘would be’ card members to apply for one of their credit cards. I started to ponder the safety of popping the little fold out USB plug into a waiting computer … wondering just who made the card and what might be included on the circuitry? I regularly read that many of the USB memory chip devices coming from China are laced with programming other than what was intended for the product. Electronic photo display frames have been especially a problem.
I’m not doubting the integrity of American Express or its marketing division, 
but suspect these kinds of low cost advertising items are produced overseas where ‘who knows what’ can be unscrupulously added to the USB circuit. Still, the temptation was too much and I plugged the website launching redirect in to my Mac … chose not to plug it into my Windows notebook.
I dissected the foam credit card just to see what was actually included in the little USB plug. This can’t cheap to produce, but on the other hand a annual fee paying American Express customer must be worth the marketing?
🙂
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