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EV Ownership & Charging Access··@pete_sorensen

Someone charged their car on my account at a public charger while my car was sitting at home the whole time

Got a charging notification on my phone for a session at a station I have never been to, in a city I wasn't in, while my car was parked in my own garage the entire day. Contacted support and they confirmed a session ran on my account for over 40 minutes before I even saw the notification, and they're saying they can't just refund it without some kind of investigation. No idea how someone got my account info onto their charging session, I haven't shared a card or QR code with anyone. Anyone dealt with this before, and did you actually get your money back or stuck arguing with support for weeks?
Filed under: EV Ownership & Charging Access
011 answers
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11 ANSWERS
dbrandvold
@dbrandvoldOctober 04, 2026
Which network? If it was an RFID card or key fob session, those can be cloned pretty easily since most of them are just a plain ID number with no real authentication behind it. The charger reads the number, sends it to the backend over OCPP and the backend bills whoever that number belongs to. The other possibility is a backend screwup where the session got attached to the wrong account. That happens more than people think.
0 Reply
cwhelan88
@cwhelan88October 03, 2026
Dispute it with your card company right now and don't wait on their investigation. You've got a time window on chargebacks, and support teams tend to move a lot faster once the bank is asking questions. Change your password too, and turn on 2FA if they have it. If somebody got into the account through the app they can start sessions from anywhere, no card needed.
0 Reply
adrian_voss
@adrian_vossOctober 03, 2026
Honestly, I'd be more surprised if it was a cloned card than a billing error. A 40 minute session at a station you've never been to sounds like the network logged someone else's session under your account. I've seen EA post sessions to my account hours late with the wrong location on them... it was my session, just the wrong station. Not the same thing as yours, but their backend is not exactly bulletproof! Ask them for the station ID and the charger's session log. If it was started through the app, the log will show that.
0 Reply
pete_sorensen
@pete_sorensenOctober 06, 2026
It's EA. I do have an RFID card from them but it's in my glovebox and the car never left the garage. Support only said "the session was initiated on your account" and wouldn't tell me how.
0 Reply
oldhand_rick
@oldhand_rickOctober 06, 2026
If it's EA, check whether you have plug and charge set up. With autocharge, the car identifies itself to the charger by its MAC address, and in theory that can be spoofed. I don't know of anyone it's actually happened to, but it's out there. Either way, I'd do the chargeback. I've been arguing with EA over a $14 charge since spring and I'm still waiting to hear back.
0 Reply
dbrandvold
@dbrandvoldOctober 07, 2026
Glovebox doesn't really matter if the number got skimmed at some point. Someone with a reader just has to be near it once. Ask them to deactivate that card and send a new one, whatever ends up happening with the refund.
0 Reply
jpadilla
@jpadillaOctober 07, 2026
Check your EA app for Plug&Charge too. If it's set up with a vehicle on it, look at what VIN/vehicle is actually registered. I've seen people end up with a stale one from a previous car or a dealer demo still tied to their account. Either way, do the chargeback. EA moves at a glacial pace otherwise.
0 Reply
mreyes_84
@mreyes_84October 07, 2026
Plug&Charge on EA uses certificates, not the MAC address. Autocharge is the MAC address thing, and EA doesn't do Autocharge. So if OP never enrolled a vehicle, I doubt that's how it happened. My money is on the RFID card number or a backend mixup.
0 Reply
jcavanaugh
@jcavanaughOctober 09, 2026
This is the part nobody talks about with these networks... the RFID cards are basically a barcode in plastic. Anybody can read them with a cheap reader off Amazon and write the number to a blank card. I had something similar with a hotel charging account years ago when I had the S P and they never did tell me how it happened. Bank refunded it in about two weeks. The charging company never did anything... just a lot of escalated tickets that went nowhere
0 Reply
pete_sorensen
@pete_sorensenOctober 09, 2026
No plug and charge, I never set it up. Called again and got a different person who said they've "escalated" it. I filed the dispute with my bank anyway, and the RFID card is deactivated now.
0 Reply
chris_halvorsen
@chris_halvorsenOctober 09, 2026
Did the notification show the station address? EA has a few sites near me where the app shows the wrong location on sessions all the time. Not saying it wasn't fraud, but I would get the station ID in writing from them before the bank asks for it.
0 Reply
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