Photos have a huge effect
Yes there will be scammers who will try to extort you that is why you have to make sure the ones that you send do not contain any identifiable info that could trace it back to you. Which means don't take photos of you beside your car or inside your home. Don't upload photos that you also posted on any social media too. Scrub your photos and make sure that no EXIF data is saved that could geotag your location. Check your phone settings and make sure that it is not saving these data by default.
Social media should all be turned to private and you could even change your settings to prevent facebook profile to come out in searches, the same with linkedin too.
With that said if you're single then there is really very little leverage that scammers can use on you and are probably less likely to engage you knowing how much harder of a mark you are. So it may be worth changing your status on SA to single. Then again, a lot of SBs do avoid dating married men so it would be best to be honest with your status once you have established some form of trust.
With all of that precautions aside, photos do make a difference on your success rate. Just think about it would you message a sb profile who doesn't have photos? The same is true for these girls too when it comes to SDs.