HAL deceived into paying ₹55 lakh to fraudster

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) lost ₹55 lakh due to a cyber fraud involving a fake seller of aircraft parts. Scammers pretended to be a legitimate US-based firm, PS Engineering Inc., and used an almost identical email address to trick HAL's Kanpur branch. The fraud came to light after HAL's officials received an email requesting a payment of $63,405 for aircraft parts. A key mistake led to the loss: the fake email address had one letter "e" missing, which went unnoticed by HAL staff. This allowed scammers to manipulate bank details and divert the payment into their accounts. HAL had previously communicated with the real PS Engineering and had received a quote for components. After not receiving any payment, the genuine company alerted HAL. The defence manufacturer then realized it had been scammed. HAL's additional general manager, Ashok Kumar Singh, filed a police report with the Cyber Police. Investigations are ongoing to determine whether the fraud originated from another US company or an Indian entity. Despite the fraud incident, HAL's shares saw a rise of 3.92 percent to ₹3,574.40 recently, reflecting confidence in the company's overall performance.