An employee at a Salina liquor store was fooled by a caller claiming to be with a Kansas utility provider.

Police Capt. Paul Forrester tells KSAL News that the employee at Hill Liquor, 153 N. Broadway, received a call at 12 p.m., Tuesday, from a caller claiming to be with Westar Energy.

The scammer told the employee that the business had not paid its electric bill and would have its power shut off in 30 minutes unless a payment was made.

The scammer then told the employee to make a $1,473 payment in GoBank cards. The employee, using the business’ bank account, went to Wal-Mart in Salina and purchase three GoBank cards for the total asked for.

After sharing the card numbers with the scammer, the employee became suspicious and called Westar Energy and realized that she was duped.

Hill Liquor is out $1,473 due to the scam.