Check your spam folder!
By Kate Northrop
An email from the Michigan Lottery about a $3 million prize sat in a woman's spam folder, but thankfully she did not mistake it for trash.
Can you imagine accidentally deleting an email from the Lottery alerting you that you won a multi-million-dollar prize? Thanks to the watchful eye of Laura Spears, 55, an email congratulating her on a $3 million prize was rescued from her spam folder.
Spears had entered the Mega Millions drawing on Dec. 31, 2021. While no one won the $221 million jackpot, she walked away with a prize worth writing home about.
"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 recalled. "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," she continued. "I couldn't believe what I was reading, so I logged in to my Lottery account to confirm the message in the email."
As it turns out, Spears had matched all five white balls in the Dec. 31 drawing, which were 2, 5, 30, 46, and 61. Had she had matched the Mega Ball 8, she would have won the $221 million jackpot.
However, she had purchased her ticket online at MichiganLottery.com with the Megaplier option for an extra dollar, multiplying her $1 million prize to $3 million when 3 was drawn as the Megaplier number.
"It's all so shocking to me that I really won $3 million!" Spears exclaimed.
The online player visited Lottery headquarters in Lansing to claim her winnings, which Spears said will allow her to retire earlier than she had planned. She also wants to share and enjoy the prize money with her family.
"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," the winner noted. Other online players might aim to do the same in case they find themselves in a similar situation.
The Mega Millions jackpot currently sits at $396 million for tonight's drawing at 11:00 pm EST. The jackpot was last won on Oct. 22, 2021 by a family in Havasu City, Arizona when it stood at $108 million.
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