Drug test cheaters, for the most part, are not the smartest people in the world. You might even say they give themselves away!

A donor came one day for a forensic test (tests not done according to DOT protocol are known as forensic AKA non-DOT tests) and gave us a sample we would not accept. Like most cheaters, he pressed us to tell him why we would not accept it… We resisted giving him an answer, because we do not want to educate cheaters in our methods of detecting a fraudulent specimen. He persisted, and the collector gave in, telling him the specimen was cold: in other words, the specimen did not have the required temperature for us to be able to accept it.

The donor then left, and we reported the result as a refusal. He returned the next day to re-test (some employers give 2nd chances,) and he presented the sample to the collector asking, “Is that hot enough?” Unfortunately for him, it was too hot. There’s no way it could have come from his body at that temperature. Apparently, he thought a higher temperature meant a better specimen. He stormed out, and again it was reported to the employer as a refusal.

Another example was a donor who provided a specimen that was barely within the temperature range we will accept. The collector was not quite sure whether to accept the specimen or not, so he questioned her about the specimen being on the low side of the temperature range. The donor seemed surprised by the questioning and exclaimed, “when I poured it into the cup, it had the correct temperature!” telling the collector that the donor brought someone else’s urine into the bathroom and “poured” it into the collection cup. Here’s your sign!

We often get asked just how we can tell a specimen is good – in many cases, it’s the cheater that gives us all the information we need.