Jailed: Man who created over 2,000 fake accounts to get nearly $28k in Marina Square vouchers

A customer relations officer at Marina Square has been sent to prison for fraudulently obtaining nearly $28,000 in e-vouchers to use at the shopping mall. 

Aravindran Vallaban, a 26-year-old Malaysian citizen, was jailed for 20 months on Friday (Jan 2) after pleading guilty to one charge of cheating, reported CNA. 

Between May 13, 2024, and April 3, 2025, Aravindran created 2,172 fake Marina Square membership accounts to use the mall's referral programme. 

As part of a promotion, new members could use a referral code from an existing member to join, and both parties would receive $5 in e-vouchers to use at the mall. 

New members also had to confirm their identity using a one-time password (OTP) sent to their phones. 

Aravindran obtained S$27,915 in e-vouchers fraudulently and spent them on personal expenses. He has since made full restitution. 

Used supervisor's credentials, ChatGPT

Aravindran's job as assistant customer relations supervisor saw him handle customer inquiries and help with promotions. 

He had access to an in-house customer relationship management system through which he could see store listings, member lists and voucher issuance details.

His supervisor had greater access and was able to view OTPs that had been generated for new customers, but had provided his login credentials to Aravindran so that the latter could assist customers who needed to retrieve their OTPs.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Ryan Lim said, according to The Straits Times: "The accused circumvented the account verification process by generating fake phone numbers using ChatGPT, and would populate the membership sign-up forms in the Marina Square phone application with these fake phone numbers.

"He would then manually obtain the OTPs... thereby allowing him to complete the registration of the fraudulent accounts using the fake phone numbers."

Aravindran's crimes came to light when a deputy general marketing manager at Marina Centre Holdings noticed that certain accounts were getting abnormally large numbers of referrals, and several of the referred numbers were invalid.

A review of internal logs revealed that many of these fraudulent accounts had the same device ID as Aravindran's own Marina Square membership account.

The manager lodged a police report on April 17, 2025.

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drimac@asiaone.com