EV charging fraud risks rise as UK public charger network reaches 119,080

The UK had 119,080 public EV chargers as of 1 April 2026, including 27,372 rapid chargers, according to Department for Transport figures cited by Nick Walker, chief operating officer at ai corporation. Walker said EV charging fraud is becoming a more material risk as Europe’s public charging network grows, passes 1 million charging points and adopts more open payment methods.

The Department for Transport now uses public EV chargers as its main measure, rather than its earlier “charging devices” metric, which showed 92,141 devices, Walker said. In Europe, he linked faster deployment partly to the EU’s Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation, known as AFIR, which has encouraged wider use of open-loop payments at public chargers.

Why is EV charging fraud growing?

Walker identified three structural weaknesses: more card and smartphone payments, unmanned charging equipment spread across many locations, and a complex operating model involving charge point operators, e-mobility service providers, roaming hubs and communications protocols.

Open-loop payments allow drivers to use conventional payment methods, such as contactless bank cards, rather than relying only on a closed network card or app. Walker said AFIR requires open-loop contactless payments at new public charging points in the EU from 2024, while research from uScale Digital found that 46% of European EV drivers use credit or debit cards at public chargers and 39% make ad-hoc smartphone payments.

That shift reduces friction for drivers, but Walker said it also removes some of the control built into closed-loop RFID systems. He added that RFID and other closed-loop charge cards have their own security weaknesses.

The physical layout of the sector adds another exposure. Public chargers can operate without staff and may sit at lampposts, neighbourhood locations or motorway service sites without regular inspection, CCTV or on-site personnel, according to Walker. That can allow tampering and other abuse to remain undetected for long periods.

Technical complexity is a further issue. The Open Charge Point Protocol, or OCPP, is used to manage communications between chargers and central systems. Walker cited Upstream Security’s 2026 Cybersecurity Report, which found that 61% of automotive and smart mobility incidents in 2025 could have affected thousands or millions of assets at once, showing how a single weak point can scale across connected networks.

What types of EV charger fraud are being reported?

Walker said the sector lacks a comprehensive official dataset comparable with card or online fraud statistics, so losses are not measured consistently. He pointed instead to freedom of information research, operator case studies, roaming security analysis and payment fraud reports.

• Allego UK freedom of information research cited by GreenFleet in October 2025 documented more than 200 UK cases of charger theft and vandalism, while noting that 40% of surveyed police forces could not provide or did not hold relevant records.
• PlugSecure and Eurelectric reported in 2026 that European operators had seen six-figure annual revenue leakage from fraudulent roaming activity, often detected during settlement checks.
• A Tap Electric and Check case study from July 2025 described a Dutch shared-mobility case in which cloned RFID cards generated many thousands of euros in monthly fraudulent charging costs before real-time controls were introduced.
• AMPECO cited a €217,000 RFID fraud case in the Netherlands in a June 2025 policy update as regulators tightened attention on ISO 15118 and cybersecurity requirements.

Walker listed six main fraud categories affecting EV charging: QR code replacement fraud, fake charging apps, roaming fraud, backend or protocol manipulation, RFID card cloning or theft, and social engineering aimed at drivers using unmanned sites.

For operators, Walker framed fraud controls as a competitive issue as well as a compliance matter. He said networks that cannot demonstrate strong security may lose drivers, while regulators are raising expectations on payments, authentication, data transparency and cybersecurity.

This story draws on original reporting from Finextra Research.