Im hoping that there are some fuel truck drivers out there to help answer this. In years past when fuel was brought to the stations it was in marked trucks, such as chevron ,shell or mobil ans so forth. These days you very seldom see a name brand truck delivering at the name brand station. Seems that fuel transprt has gone to private supply firms. How can anybody be sure that they are getting fuel with chevron additives or mobil or shell and not just the same fuel you get at some independent station and not just paying more Scott
In any given area, there are only a few refineries, but there are many brands of gasoline sold at the pump. So regardless of who the retailer is, they usually get their gas from a local refinery in order to save on transportation charges. This is especially true since the cost of transportation has risen in recent years. Basically, once gasoline is refined to a certain octane level, it is the same regardless of which refinery provides it.
As you noted, the thing that makes each brand different is the additives they put in the gas after getting it from the refinery (either their own refinery or one from a different refinery if they don't have one nearby). The major oil companies use superior additives than most of the cheaper brands. The better additives usually keep your engine and EFI cleaner, among other things. This has been shown to be true by tests conducted by companies such as BMW.
The best way to avoid any potential fraud is to buy from a company owned station rather than an independent franchisee. However, I doubt that very much fraud occurs because the large branded oil companies can easily keep track of much gas each retailer purchases. Nevertheless, just like restaurant franchisees, there have been cases of fraud reported. Many restaurant franchisees are required to buy everything from the franchisor such as ketchup, cheese, napkins, etc., and for some, the economic incentives to buy these elsewhere have tempted them to violate their supply contracts.
Some states such as California have outlawed (or are trying to outlaw) company owned stations because they feel it causes higher prices. The idea is that independent retailers (even those who only sell one brand) could purchase via "branded open-supply." It is discussed in this article, although they do not discuss the possible fraud issues you describe:
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I suspect that this a another California boondoggle, sort of like the one several years ago when the state outlawed long term natural gas contracts (at a stable price) by CA public utilities. When the spot market price for natural gas shot up, California almost went broke and could not afford to purchase enough gas to make electricity.
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