Yeah it's generally a real person wanting to trick dumbs into actually giving them the bank account info themselves. Those email addresses don't stay active for long though, since once they're reported, the account is suspended. But that's all they need really, a few hours for one or two gullible people to fall for it, then they have a buttload of money.
The emails usually trace back to African countries, and less often to places around Europe, for the record.