The executive editor of The Washington Post is dismissing as fake a call from someone claiming to be one of the newspaper’s reporters seeking damaging information on Roy Moore in exchange for money.

Marty Baron says the caller’s reporting methods bear “no relationship to reality.”

An Alabama man says he received a phone message from someone claiming to be a Post reporter willing to pay thousands of dollars for dirt on Senate candidate Moore. The Post broke the story last week of allegations of sexual misconduct by Moore decades ago.

Al Moore told WKRG-TV on Tuesday that the person offered to pay as much as $7,000 to women willing to make damaging remarks about the Republican candidate. Al Moore shared a recording with The Associated Press.

Several false stories about the Post and Moore’s accusers began circulating online soon after the newspaper detailed the accusations against Moore. Articles based off posts from a Twitter user named Doug Lewis claim “a family friend” of his said she was offered $1,000 by a Post reporter identified only as “Beth” to accuse Moore of wrongdoing. The articles also say the conversation between the reporter and the woman was recorded, but no recording is included with the article. The Twitter account in question no longer exists.

On Tuesday, TV station WKRG interviewed Alabama pastor Al Moore who said he received a voicemail from an unknown number from someone identifying themselves as a Post reporter named Bernie Bernstein. The caller said on the message that was played for the station that he was in search of “a female between the ages of 54 to 57 years old” and “willing to make damaging remarks about candidate Roy Moore for a reward of between $5,000 and $7,000.”

The caller gave an email address but a message sent to there by The Associated Press Wednesday bounced back.

The pastor said he is not related to the candidate. A spokesman for the campaign told WKRG that the candidate hadn’t heard about the call.

“We are shocked and appalled that anyone would stoop to this level to discredit real journalism,” Baron said.

Post spokeswoman Kris Coratti followed up on Baron’s comments Wednesday, telling AP in a statement that the voicemail and the allegations are “categorically false.”

“We have an explicit policy that prohibits paying sources,” she said.