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You mean like the EPA sticker on a new Volvo?

http://articles.latimes.com/1998/oct/09/business/fi-30669

See link for a scam using an altered microchip and scheme to protect itself from discovery by weights and measures.

Wasn't the danger of encountering devices (somehow) programmed to act differently in a regulator's test regime than in daily use one of the points made in the article? (Actually achieving this in the gas pump situation is left as an exercise to the reader.)

I don't know about that - all that proves is that the pump hasn't been opened since inspected. While I suspect even that isn't foolproof, there's nothing stopping someone from modifying the pump through external means, whether through a remote firmware update or mechanical means, like a magnet placed on the outside of the pump that engages some hidden mechanism.