Can a rental lease be sent through email?

I found a listing on craigslist.com for a 3bd house that is up for rent. The posting has pictures and description of the house.So I contacted the owner to the email address provided as contact information. He replied saying that the house is still available and explained that he is renting the house at a really reasonable price because he won a bid on some petroeluem deposits in Africa and wants to leave as soon as possible to start his company over there. He is currently out of the country and said he would mail all the paper work for our review but would also like the deposit and first months rent sent to him thruough Money gram or Western union. I told him i would send the money as soon as I received and reviewd the lease. He them replied saying he emailed me the lease..How can I tell if this Lease legitimate? it has an Electronic signature and idk the formatting of it just looks fishy. Is this a Scam???