Michigan woman finds $3 million lottery prize in spam folder

Courtesy Michigan Lottery
By Nadeem Muaddi, CNN

(CNN) -- Your email spam folder isn't all junk mail.

Laura Spears of Oakland County, Michigan, can attest to that, as she recently discovered a $3 million lottery prize sitting in hers.

The lucky winner had purchased a Mega Millions ticket on the Michigan Lottery website for the December 31, 2021, drawing. She matched five numbers to win $1 million, plus had the Megaplier to multiply her prize by three.

"I saw an ad on Facebook that the Mega Millions jackpot was getting pretty high, so I got on my account and bought a ticket," Spears, 55, told Michigan Lottery officials. "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. 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, who claimed her prize at Lottery headquarters last week, said she plans to share her winnings with family and retire early.

Of course, she'll also be checking her spam folder more frequently.

"I definitely added the Michigan Lottery to my safe senders list just in case I ever get lucky enough to receive another email about a huge prize," Spears said.

Feeling lucky? Monday's Powerball drawing is up to $82 million.

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