Money is being held in an 'escrow' account - is this real?

[normajean1986]

Hi, I'm new to paypal and ebay and have sold an item on there, of which someone has allegedly transferred me the money via Paypal. However, I have no Paypal notifications saying so and when they told me to check my junk folder I have the following message from 'Paypal':

"You received a payment from {user name blocked for safety} The money is pending and deposited in PayPal escrow account.The payment will not reflect in your account balance until we receive the proof of shipment from you for confirmation and, once shipment is confirmed, the money will be in your available balance within few minutes. This will help us continue to be a safer way to buy and sell."

Is this real? Or a scam! Please advise me : ) 
Thanks,
SJ

[Oregon11 · Accepted solution]

@normajean1986

That is not an email from PayPal. 

Emails from PayPal will always address you by your first and last name or business name. If you're unsure of an email, don't click any links in the email, go to the website directly and log in to see if you have any transactions or notices in your account. If you don't see any any transactions, its safe to say that you didn't receive any funds. 

Here is a PayPal link with details on fake emails.

https://www.paypal.com/uk/selfhelp/article/how-to-spot-fake-emails-faq2340

Also, I wanted to let you know that when you sell and accept PayPal payments, you need to ship the item to the confirmed address in the buyers PayPal account to receive PayPal Seller Protection. If you see a note attached to a payment asking you to send to a different address, you may want to consider refunding the purchase (especially on high value items) through eBay so you receive your final value fee returned.

Here is a PayPal link with details on Seller Protection.

https://www.paypal.com/uk/selfhelp/article/what-is-the-seller-protection-policy-and-what-items-aren%...

[Binky99]

Sadly I've just found out the hard way that yes it is a fake email