from PayPal "Your dispute has been escalated to a claim"
Sorry about that previous "you definitely " I was in a parking garage with no cells and my message sent midway of me typing..
If you would call amex and file a dispute for that money it would be no problem, as long as you don't tell them you have a dispute on that money with paypal, they will ask you if you went after the merchant, and then after paypal,
Should you bypass all that, and in the end get the refund from paypal, amex will usually realize and get in contact with you about the dispute as they will see the amount being refunded, (chances are there going to contact you about the case should they see funds refunded.)
What's strange here is the seller manage to keep you waiting for a day or two but couldn't manage to pull all the cash out, as it seems paypal still has the upper hand on the cash which means he didn't withdraw it which is kind of strange!
For me I know even what I transfer to my bank accnt takes 1 business day or less, and should I want the cash on the spot from my paypal accnt I would go ahead to an atm with my paypal debit and withdraw it.
Assuming he requested the funds from you, so you have a choice to pay with cc and he has to pay a fee deducted from what you sent him, that money should be received right away, so curios to why he kept the money for so long in the paypal accnt.
But as of now if your telling me the money is on hold with paypal as the other party didn't pull out the money then your on the safe side and there's not much to worry about as your almost 95% going to win the dispute, as your claiming this was a fraudulent purchase.. just be on top of this paypal claim and watch the progress, make sure it's moving along and not that it's swept under the rug, you don't want to wait to long should something happen and then dispute it with amex.. but as of now my hopes are you should get the money back from paypal (to your amex card.)
Would love to hear the results, post back here..