Always use escrow. If they tell you escrow doesn't protect them, then they are well aware of charge backs so how the hell does you sending first prevent one? Don't give these scammers free money for nothing more then wasting your time.
Anybody that does anything with PayPal is crazy in my opinion and is just looking for trouble. There are so many other payment methods available that are much more secure that I don't see why anyone would mess with PayPal.
Not to mention when you run into trouble and contact PayPal customer service and they just tell you that's against their TOS to trade cryptos and they just close your account.
BS awaiting everywhere when you just even think about connecting PayPal and Bitcoin in your mind.