Can someone tell me if I am getting scammed on PayPal?

[Clara]

I sold an iPhone on eBay, and the person who purchased it messaged me and said that he just wanted to do the transaction solely through PayPal to save the money that eBay charges you etc. He actually contacted me by phone and I talked to him. Last night, he sent me $400 via PayPal and I have already proceeded to transfer the money to my bank account. Now, I have read stories online where people have said that they THINK they have received real money until after a few days the bank says the money is not real. I am wondering how it is possible to tell if the money he sent to me is not real? He contacted me via phone, and I have all of his information from eBay for shipping…so I feel like this is legitimate, but I know I cannot know for sure. Also, I read all of his feedback on eBay and it's 100% positive.
Any suggestions on what I should do before I ship the phone?

[Jerry H.]

I don't know. It sounds shady that they don't want to go through ebay. It's your call but I would use caution

[karl]

I myself have personally asked some businesses to do this and had a few people ask me to do this and each time if they agree it has been a smooth transaction however this world is full of people who dont care about anyone but themselves. So like Jerry H said, its your call.

[Roddy]

Without going though eBay you lose what little seller protection you had.

It's possibly a scam. Make sure they don't want it shipped out of the country.

"solely through PayPal to save the money that eBay charges you"

PayPal only charges the seller. A buyer has NO incentive to make such an offer. Big red flag.

[Kittysue]

It's a scam. Report the buyer to EBay ASAP
This is called an offsite transaction and you will have NO protection from either EBay or Paypal and you will also have your accounts closed for breach of the Terms of Service. Only a scammer asks you to do this
Return the money to him right away and tell him that he must pay through EBay or no deal
Otherwise as soon as you ship the phone he will contact PayPal claiming his account was hacked. PayPal will look at the eBay listing and see the money was not sent through EBay, it was sent to you directly, and they will refund his money and he will resell your phone for cash on Craigslist

[Ronald]

I don't know. I do the same thing because ebay's fees were killing my bottom line. Look at his ratings and make the call. Get a PayPal Debit Card. If someone sends me money to my paypal account I take it off of there asap. It's your call.