Woman learns she won $3M lottery by checking her spam folder

Powerball and Mega Millions lottery tickets are displayed on January 3, 2018 in San Anselmo, Calif. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) (Justin Sullivan, 2018 Getty Images)

HOUSTON – A Michigan woman discovered she was the winner of a $3 million Mega Millions prize when she checked the spam folder of her email account.

According to Michigan Lottery Connect, Laura Spears, 55, matched the five white balls in the Dec. 31, 2021 drawing to win a $1 million prize; however, the prize was multiplied by the Megaplier to $3 million.

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According to Michigan Lottery Connect, Spears bought her ticket online at MichiganLottery.com after seeing that the Mega Millions jackpot was getting pretty high.

“A few days later, I was looking for a missing email from someone, so I checked the spam folder in my email account. That’s when I saw an email from the lottery saying I had won a prize,” Spears said. “I couldn’t believe what I was reading, so I logged in to my lottery account to confirm the message in the email. It’s all still so shocking to me that I really won $3 million!”

Spears recently visited lottery headquarters to claim the big prize, Michigan Lottery Connect said.

Spears tells Michigan Lottery Connect that she plans to share her winnings with her family and retire earlier than she had planned.


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