Two email accounts of Myanmar’s embassy in Japan were hacked, resulting in scam emails sent to Japanese companies. The Embassy of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar announced the hack on Facebook. Labourmyanmarembasssy@gmail.com and labour.section.me.tokyo@gmail.com were the targets of the cyber scammers, who used the email accounts to ask Japanese companies for “additional charges.”

“It is therefore announced that the Embassy of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar does not collect any fees from Japanese companies for the verification process of the Demand Letters,” the announcement read.

Both emails were involved in managing Myanmar workers in Japan. The number of migrant workers from Myanmar increased this year after Japan signed a labor pact with Myanmar to host thousands of migrant workers in skilled industries such as construction, shipbuilding, fisheries and electrical work, among others. However, prospective workers have been paying steep fees to labor brokers, as high as USD 2800 per worker, the Myanmar Times reported in February, when the deal was announced.

The embassy hack suggests cyber criminals are trying to profit from the new arrangement. Whether or not the phony emails succeeded in scamming any companies hosting Myanmar workers remains unknown.