Tampering can refer to many forms of
sabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identitie ...
but the term is often used to mean intentional modification of products in a way that would make them harmful to the consumer. This threat has prompted manufacturers to make products that are either
difficult to modify or at least difficult to modify without warning the consumer that the product has been
tampered with. Since the person making the modification is typically long gone by the time the crime is discovered, many of these cases are never solved.
The crime is often linked with attempts to
extort
Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, al ...
money from the manufacturer, and in many cases no contamination to a product ever takes place. Fraud is sometimes handled as a matter of
civil law, but actual modification of products is almost always a matter of
criminal law.
Examples
1982 Chicago Tylenol murders
Seven people died in this
incident in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
after taking medication that had been contaminated with
cyanide
Cyanide is a naturally occurring, rapidly acting, toxic chemical that can exist in many different forms.
In chemistry, a cyanide () is a chemical compound that contains a functional group. This group, known as the cyano group, consists of ...
. One man was later convicted of extortion, but no one was convicted of the murders. In 2009, the
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
announced that it was re-examining the case. This event led to new requirements for
tamper-evident
Tamper-evident describes a device or process that makes unauthorized access to the protected object easily detected. Seals, markings, or other techniques may be tamper indicating.
Tampering
Tampering involves the deliberate altering or adultera ...
seals on over-the-counter medications and changes in US tampering laws.
Foreign objects
Tampering cases often involve foreign objects in food products. These cases often focus on determining whether the contamination occurred during manufacturing, either accidentally or intentionally, or whether the claims made by the complaining customers are real or fraudulent.
Fraudulent claims
A famous case involving claims by customers that had tainted the products themselves was a series of claims in 1993 of needles found in
Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by PepsiCo. Originally created and developed in 1893 by Caleb Bradham and introduced as Brad's Drink, it was renamed as Pepsi-Cola in 1898, and then shortened to Pepsi in 1961.
History
Pepsi wa ...
products. The manufacturer convincingly demonstrated that the contamination could not have taken place at the bottling plant, and several people were proven to have put the needles in themselves.
Hardware Trojan
Hardware Trojan (HT), malicious modification of the circuitry of an integrated circuit.
2018 Australian strawberry contamination
A
strawberry tampering crisis where sewing needles were found in a large number of consumer strawberry brands in several Australian states, leading to supermarkets halting strawberry sales for weeks, and forcing farms to dump and burn hundreds of tonnes of produce.
References
{{reflist
External links
Federal Anti-Tampering Act (US)CBC News, 2 August 2012
Crimes
Property crimes