Budget Car Rental complaint: Nora Henry, Budget Operations Team – SCAM

So I just received an email from Budget 5 days after turning in a rental that had an attached pdf letter claiming I had left excessive dirt in the vehicle requiring cleaning, then labeled at the bottom of the paragraph as smoking, and a $450 fee would be automatically charged to my card they had on file from the rental. Well I’m not a smoker but there was a smell of smoke when I had gotten into the car so I immediately thought it was legit, so I called the number listed on the letter. Upon calling, an automated recording did say thank you for calling Budget, but then very quickly a man came on the line and asked for my reservation ID, phone number and email. After ing, I explained that I had received this letter and that I had not smoked in the vehicle at any time, as I’m not even a smoker. He put me on hold for about 8 minutes, came back and said they would stop the charge from going through and to expect an email ation with another letter saying it was stopped. Now mind you, this sudden reversal was based on my word alone. I do not have any photos of a smoke smell, only an explanation that there was a lingering smell when I got into the rental and the windows had been rolled down, which I figured logically was for that. I was surprised it had been that easy to just stop this charge, just like that. The man started laughing at one point, I asked him why he was laughing. He said, well I’m laughing because you’re laughing. I wasn’t laughing. We hung up, and about five minutes letter I received the Stop Billing Letter. I know what I just wrote probably sounds pretty random – and that’s why I think something really strange is going on here at Budget. I’m trying to figure out what type of scam would benefit given I did not disclose any other sensitive personal information, but clearly after googling this, I see this is becoming very common and something needs to be investigated. This is 100% screaming scam, and it needs to be dealt with.