The Washington Post says it is "shocked and appalled" by reports of a robocall from someone claiming to be a journalist from the newspaper offering payment in exchange for damaging claims against Alabama GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore.

"The call’s description of our reporting methods bears no relationship to reality. We are shocked and appalled that anyone would stoop to this level to discredit real journalism," said Marty Baron, the executive editor of The Washington Post, in a statement to WKRG.com on Tuesday.

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The local broadcaster had reported earlier on Tuesday that at least one Alabama resident had received a voice message from someone claiming to be from the newspaper.

“Hi, this is Bernie Bernstein, I’m a reporter for The Washington Post calling to find out if anyone at this address is a female between the ages of 54 to 57 years old willing to make damaging remarks about candidate Roy Moore for a reward of between $5,000 and $7,000 dollars," the voice message said, according to WKRG. "We will not be fully investigating these claims however we will make a written report. I can be reached by email at albernstein@washingtonpost.com, thank you.”

The broadcaster said it had tried to reach someone at the given email address, but the email came back undeliverable.

Last week, the Post published the allegations from four women accusing Moore of inappropriate sexual conduct. One of the women claimed that Moore had pursued her in 1979, when she was 14 and he was 32.

Moore said in an interview with Sean Hannity that the allegations were a deliberate, politically motivated attack ahead of the Dec. 12 special election.

John Rogers of the Moore campaign has said he had no prior knowledge of the robocall.