Scam with pics?

I received this mail with regards to a property listing I made last week. First mail:
Edmund <[email protected]>
to @gmail.com
date 22 February 2011 21:21
subject Property Enquiry via propertyseekers.co.za

Hi,

Here is an enquiry for you regarding
3 Bedroom House For Sale In West Park, Pretoria

Hi, what is the final offer for this property?

Thank you,
From : Edmund
Phone :

Sent via - Property Seekers.

After responding - it seemed legitimate - I got the following response last night:

Hello (my name),

Thank you for your response. i would like you to help me reserve this property and more. I'm Mr. Emund Schulthess, a Business and Oil Merchant in Venezuela and some Oil region in Asia, I have been diagnosed with esophageal cancer which was discovered very late. Now that my health has deteriorated so badly i want to quickly invest my money on properties.

I am From Swiss but at Dominican Republic hospital now were am receiving treatment which I discussed with the doctor to discharge me back to my country but I don’t think I will survive it. Although, all powers belong to God.

I have $500,000,000.00, I want to transfer to your country to buy this property and many more investment on still properties or hotel as you may chose and I need your assistance to receive the fund and also invest the money for me. I will give you details as soon as you respond.

Lets get this done urgently and finalize this transaction with you as the beneficiary before my arrival in your country for partnership investment agreement. Note that you will have 25% as of the total sum as when the funds get into your hands for investment, while 5% will be expenses for both parties before sharing. I will be waiting to hear from you.

Regards,

Emund Schulthess

So it's clearly a scam, right. And then when I scroll further down, there are three pics of a man in hospital with bandages on his throat. Okay, sure it's easy to get into a hospital, stick a huge bandage on yourself and have pics taken. I need a second opinion on this though, please.

Total scam.

Scammers almost never send photos of themselves--they don't have to.

There are literally billions of photos and videos posted online, with virtually any subject or theme imaginable. All a scammer has to do is find a few photos (or video they can take a few stills from) that match his scam, copy them to his computer, and attach them to his scam.

The photos could come from anywhere--for example, one of the most graphic hospital photos that has been used many times in "dying widow" scams shows what looks like a seriously ill woman in a hospital bed attached to many different tubes and IV's, etc. The source of that photo? Turns out it's from a porn movie.

Clearly your scammer is operating a variety of scams Nuuskierig , but he's getting his templates mixed up.

It's not unusual for scammers to operate in different areas of scamming, but most are much more careful not to make such fundamental mistakes and mix their mails up. This usually happens when they're replying in bulk and switching between scams.

It's a shame but most places where free ads can be posted are full of scammers and apartment rentals are a favourite area for them to seek victims.

Thanks Nuuskierig,
I had the same email today regarding a house listing on For Sale By Owner. Because of your posting I knew it was a scam.