Am I being scammed?

[GG53]

I'm being asked to return money to my buyer who has asked for shipping and insurance fees to be sent to his agent from my bank account but his money to me is on hold until I pay £295 based on PayPal taking the money out of his account in error who won't refund it, is this normal practice.

[kernowlass]

@GG53 

SCAM.

They encourage you to accept a 'direct' Paypal payment and may ask you to send the item internationally.
No funds or activity of the transaction shows in your Paypal account and any emails 'may' go into your junk/spam folders.

They don't quibble on cost and may also say they can't view the item as they are disabled or working abroad etc etc but they will arrange a shipping agent to collect it.

You will get/got a "fake" email that looks as though it is from paypal.....it isn't because they don't actually have a Paypal account and have no intention of paying you.
It will say the buyer has paid ...you won't have been paid.

The 'fake' paypal email will tell you that the buyer has paid for the item + shipping costs but you must send those shipping costs to the courier/ shipping agent via anther payment processor than Paypal ie bank account or moneygram OR via providing some vouchers or tokens before the funds are released to you.
They are not interested in the item, they just want that couriers/shipping funds and you will never see money in your paypal balance.

Once you have become a victim they may try again with more fake Paypal emails with other 'reasons' that you must send them a payment for custom fees / overpayment etc.

Paypal NEVER tell you to send an item before the payment is showing in your paypal account.
Paypal NEVER expect you to use a rival money transfer service eg Bank Transfers, Moneygram or Western Union etc.
Also their is no seller protection on paypal for any type of item that is collected by the buyer.

Delete any emails and ignore the scammers.