OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich. (WWJ) – You may want to check your email inbox’s spam folder.
An Oakland County woman recently won $3 million playing the Mega Millions Lottery game, but she almost never found out, because the winning notification was hidden away in her spam folder.
Lottery officials say 55-year-old Laur Spears matched all five white balls in the New Year’s Eve Mega Millions drawing. That’s typically a $1 million prize, but thanks to the Megaplier, that prize was tripled.
Spears says she bought her winning ticket online after seeing an online ad.
“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 told milotteryconnect.com. “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 she saw an email saying she’d 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,” she said. It’s all still so shocking to me that I really won $3 million!”
Officials say Spears recently claimed her prize at Lottery headquarters.
She plans to share her winnings with her family and retire earlier than she’d planned.
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“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.
The Mega Millions jackpot was last won on Oct. 22, 2021, when a family in Lake Havasu City, Ariz. won $108 million. The current jackpot stands at $376 million.