Usually when an email in your spam folder announces you've won millions of dollars, it's a scam. Luckily for Michigan's Laura Spears, she believed the email in her spam folder that appeared to have come from the Michigan Lottery and is now $3 million richer as a result. "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, of Oakland County, tells Michigan Lottery Connect. The 55-year-old had purchased a Mega Millions lottery ticket online for the New Year's Eve drawing after reading that the jackpot "was getting pretty high," she says. "A few days later, I was looking for a missing email from someone, so I checked the spam folder in my email account."
Spears says that's when she spotted an email from Michigan Lottery. "I couldn't believe what I was reading, so I logged in to my Lottery account," she notes. There, she saw her $2 ticket matched the five white balls drawn Dec. 31, which was enough for the $1 million second-place prize. She'd also paid an extra $1 for the Megaplier, which meant her prize was multiplied to $3 million, per NBC News. "It's all still so shocking to me," says Spears, per Michigan Lottery Connect. She picked up her prize last week and is now planning an early retirement, per CNN. The jackpot for Tuesday's Mega Millions drawing—the 27th since a $432 million jackpot was won in New York in September—stands at $396 million, with an estimated $273.6 million cash option, per WCVB. (More lottery winner stories.)
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