POFMA Issued to Podcast That Features Hacker James “Messiah” Raj , Whose TikTok Account is Now Banned

James Raj Arokiasamy is a Singaporean hacker who was once jailed for several high-profile hacks.

And despite the current scammy climate, he wasn’t shy to share about them in the podcast show Plan B.

Unfortunately, several of the claims he made on the show were allegedly fake, which resulted in the internet police going after Plan B.

POFMA Issued to Podcast That Features Hacker James “Messiah”

On 13 Sep 2023, the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) office issued a correction direction to podcast show Plan B.

The correction was issued due to several misleading statements made by James Raj on Plan B’s recent podcast episodes.

Plan B then went ahead to make several of them into Instagram posts.

James Raj was a hacker who went by the pseudonym “The Messiah”.

He claimed that he was part of the hacktivist group “Anonymous” and was behind several hacking incidents back in 2013.

Fake Claims Made on Plan B’s Podcast

Here are the claims he made on the show that got him, and the podcast, into hot water.

Authorities Didn’t Charge Him Because They’re Scared of Him

On 29 Nov 2021, James Raj was involved in a scuffle with another customer at a shop.

The customer was drunk and shouting at the shop assistant.

James Raj was issued a stern warning for his actions.

He claimed on the show that the Singapore authorities did not press charges against him out of the fear of retaliation.

However, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) clarified that was inaccurate. The reason why charges were not pressed against him was due to the fact that he was not an aggressor and had suffered a more serious injury than the other party.

He also did not have any violent antecedents and readily admitted to kicking the other party.

Should James Raj’s involvement be more serious, he would have been prosecuted and charged in court.

Isolated During His Remand

James Raj claimed that when he was in remand, he was deprived of human interaction with the exception of his warden.

That is untrue, MHA says, as James Raj was housed with other inmates during his remand period.

The only exception was between 28 and 39 Mar 2014 after he committed prison disciplinary offences.

His family members also visited him regularly and he had communicated with them via letters.

His lawyers had also seen him in prison at least 12 times.

Imprisonment

James Raj claimed that he was arrested and imprisoned for protesting internet censorship.

However, he was arrested for committing drug offences and carrying out hacking activities.

On 25 May 2011, James Raj was arrested for drug offences. However, while out on bail, he fled from Singapore to Malaysia.

While on the run, he carried out hacking activities between Mar and Nov 2013.

On 4 Nov 2013, James Raj was arrested in Malaysia and sent back to Singapore where he was eventually sentenced to 4 years and 8 months’ imprisonment for drug and computer misuse offences.

He served a total of 3 years in prison from 3 Dec 2013 to 16 Dec 2016, of which two years were under remand as he refused to cooperate with investigations.

Plea Deal

James Raj also claimed that he was offered a plea deal by the government because they did not want the public to know he could hack into the systems of many government agencies.

The deal was for him to plead guilty to 39 charges instead of going to trial over 400 charges.

James Raj was actually served with 161 charges, 158 for computer misuse offences and 3 for drug offences.

He had signed all 161 charge sheets.

The prosecution then proceeded on 40 charges, 39 on computer misuse offences and 1 on drug offences, while taking the rest into consideration for sentencing.

According to MHA, this is a normal practice to avoid expending “judicial resources”, and will only take place if the defendant pleaded guilty instead of claiming trial.

Hacking Claims

James Raj claimed that he had hacked into the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) website in 2013 and the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) systems.

However, investigations conducted by the respective agencies revealed that to be untrue.

SLA said that James Raj had scanned SLA’s systems for vulnerabilities but did not hack into them. This is allegedly consistent with James Raj’s admissions.

In addition, MINDEF debunks the claims as well, and assured that its systems were neither hacked or compromised.

On 13 Sep 2023, Plan B placed the correction notice on its Instagram account.

 

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Challenged MINDEF, Taken Off TikTok

On 11 Sep 2023, James Raj took to his TikTok account to challenge MINDEF on its claims.

He asked the ministry to prove that he had not hacked into their systems.

Should they be able to do so, he will “apologise on national TV” and will stop being a hacker.

Should he be able to hack into Mindef systems, however, he wants the ministry to apologise to him on “national TV” and give him the role of head of Information and Technology (IT).

James Raj also said he wasn’t afraid of being POFMA-ed.

His TikTok account was removed on Wednesday, 13 Sep 2023.